  Dating apps such as Tinder have announced plans for a dating metaverse: the
incorporation of XR technologies into the online dating process to augment
interactions between potential sexual partners across virtual and physical
worlds. While the dating metaverse is still in conceptual stages we can
forecast significant harms that it may expose daters to given prior research
into the frequency and severity of sexual harms facilitated by dating apps as
well as harms within social VR environments. In this workshop paper we envision
how XR could enrich virtual-to-physical interaction between potential sexual
partners and outline harms that it will likely perpetuate as well. We then
introduce our ongoing research to preempt such harms: a participatory design
study with sexual violence experts and demographics at disproportionate risk of
sexual violence to produce mitigative solutions to sexual violence perpetuated
by XR-enabled dating apps.
