Popular dating mobile apps have contributed to the rise in sexually transmitted infections (STI) among Britons, health experts warned.
According to BBC Newsbeat, United Kingdom's top sexual health doctor Peter Greenhouse said that dating apps make people switch partners easily and this would only mean that sexual infections are also easily spread.
Apart from that, the trend in dating app usage may also contribute to the rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among heterosexual individuals.
"If enough people change partners quickly, and they've got other untreated sexually transmitted infections, it might just start an explosion of HIV in the heterosexual population. Apps could do that," Greenhouse told Newsbeat.
Based on the latest numbers released by the Public Health England, there is an increase in the rise of STIs, with syphilis having a 33 percent increase and gonorrhea with 19 percent in 2014.
Despite how health experts see dating apps, developers argue that the apps of today promote the message of safe sex and some of them even provide information on a user's sexual health.
Aside from Tinder, Happn is also a trending dating app in the United Kingdom and the company's head of trends, Marie Cosnard insists that the apps should not be blamed for the increasing number of STI cases.
"Dating apps are following wider social trends and changing behaviors that have been unfolding for decades," she says, adding that STI cases have nothing to do with dating apps.
Cosnard also explained that people should focus more on educating themselves about sexual health and to take full responsibilities of their actions, regardless of how and where two people meet.
While it's hard to pinpoint the number of people in the United Kingdom who get to meet using dating apps, the Online Dating Association revealed that between 25 and 40 percent of newly formed relationships start in that manner.
