South Australia will legislate to ban people convicted of sexual violence, domestic violence and child sex offences from dating apps, the first law of its kind in the country, with bans of at least 10 years and up to five years in prison for breaching them. The government says it is working through the drafting and wants the bill moving as quickly as possible.

The ban would attach to convictions for sexual violence, domestic violence, coercion, child sex offences and image-based sexual abuse. The most serious offenders would be banned for life.

The legal design borrows from the child sex offender register. The offence sits with the banned person, so a registered offender who opens a dating profile commits a crime, whether or not the platform detects them. It is the same structure that bans registered child sex offenders from working with children.

Acting Premier Kyam Maher, who is also the state's Attorney-General, put the scope plainly: "If you have a conviction for sexual violence, for domestic violence, for child sex offences, then you will be banned from dating apps."

Leesa Scanlon, the advocate whose campaigning preceded the proposal, said: "Seeking connection shouldn't come at the cost of your safety." The state's Victims' Rights Commissioner, Sarah Quick, said there is "a responsibility to ensure these apps are as safe as possible".

The numbers behind the push come from the Australian Institute of Criminology, whose 2022 survey found a third of respondents had been subjected to sexual violence by someone they met on an app or website in the previous five years. More than three million Australians use the platforms.

The apps are already operating under a voluntary safety code, adopted in October 2024 after the federal government told the industry to improve its handling of assault complaints or face regulation. The South Australian move is the first time a government has reached past the platforms to the users themselves.

What the government has not yet said is how the bans will be policed, including what, if anything, platforms will be required to check at sign-up. As described, the model is a deterrent enforced after the fact rather than a gate at the door, which is how the working-with-children ban operates too.

The government has given no date for the bill's introduction. The commitment it has made is speed.