BuzzFeed reports 11 social networking enterprises, including Grindr, Scruff and Jack'd, have joined forces to decrease "violent attacks" on LGBT people who meet via social media interaction. Other companies participating in the effort include Backpage, BGLlive, GROWLr, Hornet, Manhunt, MISTER and VGL.

"The way people meet is evolving," Anti-Violence Project executive director Sharon Stapel, who is administering the campaign, told BuzzFeed News. "But violence is still occurring. We want to reach people where violence is occurring, and that is online."

Stapel said businesses have been enthusiastic in providing hefty discounts on the ads: "It is in their interest to de-stigmatize online hook-ups. ... We hear from people over and over that they will not report violence to police because they met the person through a hook-up app."

Throughout New York State, the AVP has been proactive in creating a platform that offers counseling to men and women about how to prevent hazardous situations and how they can report violence or assault to confidential sources with with ads appearing on billboards, as pop-up commercials on mobile app devices and as banner ads on websites.

"Sex itself is a stigmatized topic, which inhibits us from having productive conversations about the type of sex individuals are having via these social apps," Rentboy.com's Chief Operating Officer Hawk Kinkaid said. "When you compound this commonly shared stigma with the vulnerability necessary to expose an act of sexual assault, [reporting violence] becomes a daunting prospect for an individual."

Kinkaid said the ad campaign for Anti-Violence Project "resonates with our audience because these are non-judgmental initiatives," while delivering "a safe space to report and seek care for acts of violence."

Using a subsidized a $35,525 grant from the New York State Department of Health, the "For a Safe Time" campaign features a 24-hour bilingual telephone hotline that provides information on a confidential reporting form and can direct users to tips on preventing violence, such as meeting in public. While the project is currently limited to New York app users, Stapel said he is eager to spread the platform throughout the U.S.: "We would love other health departments to sponsor projects like this in their state."

The campaign arrives after various incidents around the New York City area and major cities across the U.S., such as an occurrence between two men in Philadelphia, with one man allegedly having sexually assaulted and robbed the other after connecting on Grindr. BuzzFeed noted two similar cases between a Seattle man who allegedly bashed another man with a hammer in May, and another incident last month, where a coterie of three men allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint in his Manhattan apartment after he a invited a man over to his apartment via Badoo.com, taking his MacBook Pro, iPod, LG cellphone and Xbox game console, according to AVP.

In a statement, Grindr explained to BuzzFeed News why they joined forces: "Grindr is committed to the health and safety its users and as such is always looking to work with great organizations like the Anti-Violence Project." In August, the mobile device social networking app reported an average of 109 clicks per weeks in regards to the safety tips, while Rentboy.com is providing 7,000 impressions of the ads per day.

In its statement, the company said, "Grindr guys are used to on-demand services, having access to information about great initiatives through the app is no different."