• The ODDA launched its Consumer Safety Panel on 8 October 2026 at its Annual Conference in Westminster.
  • The panel will have 12 to 16 members across four groups: survivors of romance fraud or abuse, everyday users, independent experts and advocates.
  • Four founding members have been named, and the panel is co-run with LoveSaid co-founder Anna Rowe.
  • Member firms can bring new safety features and policies to the panel, and its input will feed into ODDA standards.

Dating companies that belong to the Online Dating and Discovery Association now have a standing group of survivors, users and experts to test new safety features and policies against. The trade body launched its Consumer Safety Panel on 8 October 2026, at its Annual Conference at One Great George Street in Westminster.

The panel will hold 12 to 16 seats across four groups: people who have lived through romance fraud or abuse, ordinary users, independent experts and advocates. Its views will feed into the association's standards, policy positions and research, and ODDA has promised to share what it learns. Chief executive Simon Newman said the panel "gives lived experience a permanent place in how our sector makes decisions."

The DII Take

This is a sensible, low-cost move that hands smaller members something they could rarely build alone: structured access to people who have been harmed on dating platforms. It also lines up neatly with what Ofcom has asked dating services to do. But a group of up to 16 people is an advisory tool, not an audit. Its value will depend on whether ODDA publishes what the panel finds, and whether members change course when it tells them something they would rather not hear.

Who sits on the panel and how it will work

Four founding members have been named. Becky Holmes is an author and romance fraud expert. Olivier Kraft is a financial crime specialist at Proud Against Fraud. Jamie Love is an entrepreneur and LGBT+ activist, and Melanie Graham is a campaigner and the author of Chosen.

That leaves most seats still empty. ODDA has not said how the rest will be recruited, or whether panel members are paid.

The panel is run jointly by ODDA and Anna Rowe, co-founder of the romance fraud charity LoveSaid. It is the first pilot of Rowe's Romance Abuse Framework, which ODDA has formally endorsed. Sessions are trauma-informed, so members share only what they choose to. The group meets for the first time in the coming weeks to agree its first piece of work, and member companies with a question are asked to route it through ODDA's Ashleigh Bishop.

Which operators get access

The panel is a member benefit, so the membership list matters. ODDA's own list includes Match Group (MTCH) and its brands Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish. It also names Meetic, OurTime, Feeld, Lovoo, Yubo, The Meet Group, MeetMe, Skout and Tagged, plus smaller operators such as Christian Connection, Muddy Matches, FreeDating and HubPeople. Verification and safety suppliers, including Sumsub, Veriff and TransUnion, sit on the same list.

Bumble (BMBL) and Grindr (GRND) do not appear on it. On 13 October ODDA announced iLove, a dating and matchmaking service, as its newest member. Membership fees start at £550 and rise with global turnover, which puts the panel within reach of very small operators.

Governance will shape how the panel's views are read. ODDA's board includes Badia Berrada, who leads corporate affairs in Europe for Match Group. A panel that can only agree with the companies that fund it would be worth very little. One that can say no in public would be worth a great deal.

Why it matters under the Online Safety Act

The timing fits the UK regulatory calendar. Ofcom's guidance on a safer life online for women and girls, published on 25 November 2025, names dating services as in scope. It asks firms to test new features for abuse before rollout, to consult experts when designing policies and features, and to keep learning from survivors.

A panel that can only agree with the companies that fund it would be worth very little. One that can say no in public would be worth a great deal.

Ofcom says those steps go further than the Act strictly requires. But the regulator will report in summer 2027 on progress by individual providers and the industry, and could recommend that Government strengthens the Act if progress falls short. An operator with no trust and safety research budget can now show it consulted people with lived experience. That record could be useful when Ofcom comes asking.

Operators should not mistake it for compliance. ODDA's standards page describes the association as "not a regulator, certification body or assessor," and its six standards documents leave members to decide how to meet them. Panel feedback will not discharge illegal content duties, which have applied since 17 March 2025.

The next pressure points are close. Ofcom's compliance timetable lists hash matching for intimate image abuse and cyberflashing as a new priority offence for autumn 2026, both subject to parliamentary process. Both touch features dating apps use every day: image sharing and private messaging. Reporting flows for those harms would be a natural first job for the panel.

  • ODDA members, smaller UK operators above all, gain a ready-made route to the survivor and expert input Ofcom's women and girls guidance asks for.
  • The panel is advisory. It does not replace Online Safety Act risk assessments or compliance with Ofcom's codes.
  • Watch the panel's first piece of work, how the remaining seats are filled and whether findings are published before Ofcom's summer 2027 progress report.

Sources: ODDA: ODDA launches its Consumer Safety Panel; ODDA: About us and member list; ODDA: Standards and guidance; ODDA: Become an ODDA member; ODDA: Annual Conference 2026; ODDA: ODDA welcomes iLove as a new member; Ofcom: Guidance on a safer life online for women and girls (statement); Ofcom: Tech firms must up their game to tackle online harms against women and girls; Ofcom: Important dates for online safety compliance