Grinding Against HIV Prevention Discourse: A critical exploration of risk among users of mobile gay cruising apps

This proposed project will seek to understand how men who have sex with men (MSM) use social networking applications (apps) to engage in sexual encounters and how these encounters may involve risk taking behaviours. In 2009, Grindr was introduced as a mobile app for smartphones to allow MSMs to see the profiles of other men in their vicinity (using GPS technology) and to use the "chat" function to talk to them. This app is commonly known as a "hook-up" app for people to contact other men for the purposes of sexual encounters. This app quickly became the most popular of its kind and as of 2014 there have been 10 million user downloads since its inception and 5 million accessing monthly. The challenge for those working in HIV and STI prevention is that despite the education campaign to reduce HIV and other STIs among MSMs, infections continue to occur at a higher rate among this subgroup of the population. We believe that the increased availability of sexual encounters through mobile devices may contribute to the continued spread of HIV and for the recent outbreak of other STIs among MSM. This research seeks to provide new insight into how mobile apps can be (re)considered in HIV and STIs prevention.