New dating app weeds out criminals, sex offenders

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Tuesday, May 23, 2017
New dating app weeds out criminals, sex offenders
New dating app weeds out criminals, sex offenders. Sharrie Williams reports during Action News at 4:30 p.m. on May 23, 2017.

A new dating app is available for anyone scared they might be inviting a criminal into their lives.

It's called Gatsby and like most conventional apps, users swipe left to pass on a person and swipe right to match.

But that's where the similarities end. When new users sign up for Gatsby, they're put through a criminal background check, which includes sex offender registries.

If anything comes up, including petty crimes like trespassing, the potential dater is rejected.

Gatsby also re-scans existing users every month and bans anyone convicted of a crime after their initial screening.

The people behind the app say the "safe dating movement" is all about taking the fear out of meeting someone online.

But critics argue a zero-tolerance approach is too extreme.

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