sexual dating violence had more severe depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms, and poorer health-related quality of life, in particular, social, psychological and environmental aspects, than non-victims. It should be noted that this study could not prove the causality due to the limitation of its cross-sectional design. Nonetheless, given the association found in the study, users of dating apps should be targeted for risk assessment and sexual health promotions. What we should do: Given the popularity of dating apps and smartphones nowadays, it is impractical and unrealistic to prevent people from using dating apps. Instead, the developers of dating apps should take social responsibility. Educational elements such as pop-up preventive message and notifications to promote safe sex practices should be incorporated into the apps so that the awareness of safe sex can increase. Besides, health care professionals can also develop interventions and health promotion programmes which target dating app users in order to promote safe sex practice and safe use of dating apps. Related publication Choi, E. P. H., Wong, J. Y. H., Lo, H. H. M., Wong, W., Chio, J. H. M., & Fong, D. Y. T. (2016). The impacts of using smartphone dating applications on sexual risk behaviours in college students in Hong Kong. PLoS One , 11(11), e0165394. Dating patterns changed: Along with the growing popularity of smartphones and Internet access worldwide, a variety of location-based dating applications (apps), using the global positioning system (GPS) have been launched. By using GPS, these apps can connect users with other users in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, these apps allow users to create a profile consisting of self-introduction, photos and basic demographic information. Dating app users can swipe through dozens of profiles every minute and plan multiple dates, whether in hopes of a love match or a sexual hook-up. However, fake profiles abound, sexual predators use the apps, and there are some common online dating behaviours such as meeting alone after scant acquaintance. These factors put dating app users at risk. The incidence of sex crimes and sexually transmitted infections increases with the increasing popularity of dating apps. The Independent in the United Kingdom reported that ‘the number of crimes thought to involve the use of dating apps has increased by 560 per cent in the past two years’. Besides, health care professionals increasingly view dating apps as enablers of risky sexual behaviours, helping people to meet and have sexual hook-ups more efficiently than ever before. The adverse impact of these dating apps is so profound. Using dating apps, an emerging risk factor of sexual health, is transforming the way health care professionals promote sexual health, and track and prevent the outbreak of sexually transmitted infections. A survey study on university students was conducted in Hong Kong: Empirical data about the impact of using dating apps and sexual health were sparse. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the association between using dating apps and sexual behaviours. We found that compared with non-users, dating app users were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours - including having more sexual partners, having inconsistent condom use in a lifetime, having drug use in conjunction with sex. In addition, app users were at a greater risk of being sexually abused (defined on a scale that included, for example, being coerced into unprotected sex, and rape) than non-users. It was also found that victims of Research F eature Stories Dr. Edmond Choi Assistant Professor An Emerging Risk Factor of Sexual Health: The Use of Smartphone Dating Apps 2 Vision to L ead Mission to Serve