MP to write to dating apps amid safety fears

The digital secretary said he will write to Tinder and Grindr asking what measures they have in place to keep children safe, after an investigation claimed they are at risk of exploitation on such apps.

Police have investigated more than 30 incidents of child rape since 2015 where victims were sexually exploited after evading age checks on dating apps, The Sunday Times said.

The newspaper said records obtained through freedom of information laws showed 60 further cases of child sex offences via online dating services, including grooming, kidnapping and violent sexual assault.

The youngest victim was eight years old, the paper said.

Jeremy Wright, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, described the findings as “truly shocking”. He added: “I will be writing to these companies asking what measures they have in place to keep children safe from harm, including verifying their age.

“If I’m not satisfied with their response, I reserve the right to take further action.”

Grindr told The Sunday Times: “Any account of sexual abuse or other illegal behaviour is troubling to us as well as a clear violation of our terms of service. Our team is constantly working to improve our digital and human screening tools to prevent and remove improper underage use of our app.”

Tinder told the paper: “We utilise a network of industry-leading moderation and review tools and spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove minors and other inappropriate behaviour from our app.

“We don’t want minors on Tinder.”

Mr Wright said the paper’s findings provide “yet more evidence that online tech firms must do more to protect children”.

Jeremy Wright MP said the findings are “truly shocking”.