Male Hook Up Apps
One of the best M2M dating app and hookup app as well is Grindr, which was launched in the year 2009. It is a location-based app, wherein the people that will only show up on your page will be the ones who live near you. Currently, Grindr has 27 million members and counting.
Disckreet ($3 on iOS) is definitely a super-useful app: It acts as a password-protected locker for all your sexy photos. And if you're looking to find a hookup for tonight, tomorrow,. AddThis Utility Frame. The Bro App for Men. Find dates, fwb, & more! What do people think. The Bro App (BRO) is amazing. So much better than those lame hook-up apps. This app is clean and organised and has great features. Although hookup apps require users to be 18 or older, a new Northwestern Medicine study found that more than 50 percent of sexually active gay and bisexual boys ages 14 to 17 met male sexual.
Newswise — CHICAGO - Although hookup apps require users to be 18 or older, a new Northwestern Medicine study found that more than 50 percent of sexually active gay and bisexual boys ages 14 to 17 met male sexual partners on apps such as Grindr and Scruff.
It also was common for these teens to use the apps to connect with friends and find new gay, bisexual and queer friends and boyfriends, which sheds new light on who uses adult male hookup apps and why.
The study was published today, May 18, in the Journal of Adolescent Health. It is the first known study to document that gay and bisexual teenage boys use sex and dating apps designed for adult men to find male partners. The apps provide users with a virtual networking space specifically for gay and bisexual men and overcome the need to figure out a potential partner’s or friend’s sexuality.
These features might be appealing to gay and bisexual adolescent boys who are not as open about their sexual identity, who have a smaller pool of potential partners compared to their heterosexual peers and who are navigating dating and sex with same-gender partners for the first time.
“While this study points out that hookup apps pose some risks, we were happy to learn that there are many positive ways youth use these apps that help them feel more confident and comfortable in their sexuality,” said first author Kathryn Macapagal, research assistant professor of medical social sciences at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “They can better learn about ways to protect their sexual health and feel less alone, which is important for gay and bisexual teens who are much more likely to feel isolated or depressed because of their sexual orientation or identity.”
Teenage boys who used the apps were more likely seek out important sexual health services, such as HIV testing, the study found.
It is common for adolescents, regardless of their sexual orientation, to use sexually explicit media such as apps or porn to explore their sexuality. However, young men who have sex with men are far more likely than other groups to be infected with HIV, and the study found that most boys who had had sex with partners they met on the apps didn’t always use condoms.
“Gay and bisexual adolescent boys account for almost two-thirds of HIV infections among teenagers in the United States,but unfortunately sex education and HIV prevention tailored to their needs is almost nonexistent,” Macapagal said. “The sooner we understand the role these apps play in the lives of gay and bisexual teen guys, the sooner we will be able to tailor sex education and HIV prevention efforts for this population and help them live healthier lives.”
In the study, 200 sexually experienced gay and bisexual adolescent boys ages 14 to 17, who were recruited from Facebook and Instagram, completed online survey questions assessing their use of apps to meet partners for dating and sex, as well as their sexual behavior and HIV risk. Overall, 52.5 percent of participants reported using hookup apps to find male partners.
More than 80 percent of the youth reported using hookup apps such as Grindr – the most-downloaded app worldwide for men who have sex with men – and dating websites because they felt like they had few options for meeting gay, bisexual and queer partners in their neighborhoods. More than 30 percent of study participants said they used these technologies to prevent other non-LGBTQ people from learning about their sexual orientation. Thirty-four percent of participants said they used the apps to meet a new gay or bisexual friend.
The study highlights just how little parents, educators and health care providers know about how teens spend their time on apps and online technology that is constantly changing.
“It is difficult to prevent teens from using hookup apps altogether,” said Dr. Brian Mustanski, director of the Northwestern Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing and co-director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research. “So it becomes increasingly important for parents and others who work closely with teens to be proactive in having conversations with teens about online safety and sexual safety, especially on apps or websites they may not officially be allowed to use because of their age.”
The data were collected as part of larger studies funded by the National Institutes on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01MD009561 and U01MD011281). Mustanski was senior author. Co-authors were David A. Moskowitz, Dennis H. Li, Andres Carrion and Emily Bettin from Northwestern.
Follow-up on: Fujimoto K, Wang P, Ross MW, Williams ML. Venue-mediated weak ties in multiplex HIV transmission risk networks among drug-using male sex workers and associates. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(6):1128–1135.
Men who have sex with men (MSM) who engage in sex work (i.e., offer sex in exchange for money, drugs, shelter, or goods) are at high risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In a 20-city study of MSM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that those who had sold sex in the past 12 months were more likely to be HIV-positive and, when positive, were more likely to be unaware of their status.
However, the risk for HIV and other STIs is not equally distributed across all MSM who engage in sex work. In an AJPH article published in 2015, Fujimoto et al. highlighted the role of the venues in which male sex workers meet clients in understanding the condom use and HIV status of MSM engaging in sex work. Specifically, they found that individuals within specific bars and street corners were more similar with respect to HIV status and condom use than those in other venues. These findings suggest the critical need to understand the role of venues (and the social networks formed within them) in transmission of HIV and other STIs among male sex workers and their clients.
Although Fujimoto et al. made an important contribution in this field of research, they focused exclusively on bars and street corners as the venues where these men meet their sexual partners. Since they collected their data, sex work has experienced a technology-driven transformation that has dramatically changed how sex workers meet and negotiate with potential clients. With the emergence of the Internet, male sex workers began to make use of online profiles and advertisements (e.g., on the now-shuttered Rentboy.com) to solicit potential clients. More recently, the growth of mobile applications (apps) and Web sites that facilitate quick sexual hookups among MSM have further changed male sex work, creating a need for new research.
Gradually migrating from the streets or escort agencies to new online venues, sex work has become more anonymous and safer.3 Instead of seeking clients in streets, bars, or other venues where they may face violence, arrest, and stigma, sex workers can now meet, vet, and negotiate with potential clients through apps and Web sites. Online technologies allow sex workers to work independently without splitting fees, and make it easier and safer for clients to hire them. Thus, the buying and selling of sex has likely become more attractive to more people. Male escorts who advertise on escorting Web sites have been well-studied; however, research has suggested the existence of a distinct, potentially large, but understudied population of men who find opportunities for sex work on gay hookup apps and Web sites that were not designed for sex work.3
NEW PATHWAY INTO SEX WORK
Scholars have recently suggested that gay hookup apps and Web sites have become a common venue for—and possibly even a pathway into—sex work. For example, MacPhail et al. have noted, “research suggests that many men are introduced to sex work via the Internet,”(p484) and hookup apps and Web sites may be becoming the new pathway into sex work. On hookup apps and Web sites, men sometimes “casually proposition other users of the site,”3(p889) leading many to experience sex work without advertising themselves as sex workers. McLean observed that there could be a sizeable population of young men “engaging in online sex work on an informal basis” on hookup Web sites without identifying as sex workers or escorts.3(p900) Once initiated, men may remain involved in sex work because they come to value the financial and psychological rewards (e.g., empowerment, enhanced self-esteem) that being paid for sex provides.
GROWING DIVERSITY AMONG MALE SEX WORKERS
New technologies have made male sex work more visible, accessible, and “an everyday commodity in the marketplace.”(p483) As sex work has become much more normalized within the gay community, it has also been reconceptualized from being a form of deviance, psychopathology, and a vector for disease to a reasonable source of money or other needed goods. Earlier studies described male sex workers as delinquent youths selling sex on the streets, but a more recent study of male online escorts presented them as professionals who work independently and well past the age of 30 years. By making sex work safer, easier to engage in, less stigmatized, and more anonymous, new technologies may have increased the willingness of many MSM to hire sex workers, thereby resulting in increased demand. The migration of much sex work to hookup apps and Web sites is thus also likely expanding and diversifying the pool of people participating in sex work.
RISKS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT
Unlike street workers who are often socialized by more experienced people in their network, MSM who enter sex work through hookup apps or Web sites without such socialization may be ill-equipped to effectively vet potential clients, negotiate safer sex, or otherwise manage the risks for HIV and other STIs their clients pose. Furthermore, they may not think of themselves as sex workers, which could cause them to underestimate the sexual risks associated with their sex work and to fail to take adequate precautions. In addition, hookup apps and Web sites are not designed to support the transparent negotiation of sex work as they forbid offering or soliciting prostitution. Users therefore resort to a series of codes, symbols, or euphemisms to communicate their interest in sex work (e.g., inserting the dollar sign in their profile’s text or saying that one is or is looking for “generous”). They also must be careful when proposing sex work with other users to avoid being reported to Web site moderators or caught by law enforcement. These obstacles to transparent communication could lead to encounters in which the expectations and boundaries have not been clearly established and in which safety has not been discussed.
Finally, another important development is the availability of pre- and postexposure prophylaxis for HIV. Male sex workers are regularly offered more money for condomless sex, which may become more frequent with the growing availability of effective biomedical prevention strategies. Yet, because their engagement in sex work may only be occasional, MSM who casually find clients on hookup apps and Web sites may not be on preexposure prophylaxis or perceive themselves as needing it.
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
At the current time, little is known about this new population of MSM sex workers, making it difficult to tailor sexual health promotion activities for them. There is a pressing need for more research on several fronts. For example, it is important to understand what features of sex work through hookup apps and Web sites may lead to unprotected sex and what strategies MSM are employing to mitigate risk. The barriers to HIV testing and use of preexposure prophylaxis are also especially important to investigate in this population to try to prevent infections or ensure their early detection. The ways in which race/ethnicity shapes the interactions between clients and sex workers has received scant attention in the existing literature on male sex workers. Sex workers of various races/ethnicities might appraise their own worth in the sexual marketplace differently, which in the case of sex work might lead to differences in their perceptions of the power they have in their negotiations with clients. Similarly, as noted previously, the migration of sex work to apps and Web sites has allowed MSM who are sex workers to continue working later in life, but many studies of male sex work have neglected potential age differences.
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