Children as young as eight are targeted on Tinder by predators

CHILDREN as young as eight are being sexually exploited by strangers using dating apps.

Apps such as Tinder and Grindr are accused of failing to enforce their age limits of 18 years and over, which means sexual predators have easy access to children who have signed up.

Police have investigated more than 30 offences of rape of a child since 2015, where the victim met the alleged abuser on a dating app.

There were 60 further child sex cases including grooming, kidnapping and violent sexual assault.

Describing the revelations as ‘truly shocking’, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said yesterday he would be writing to Tinder and Grindr to ask what measures they had in place to keep children safe from harm, including verifying their age. He said: ‘If I’m not satisfied with their response, I reserve the right to take further action.’

Cases included a boy who signed up to Grindr, a dating app for homosexuals, at the age of 13, only to be raped or abused by at least 21 men. They were later convicted of grooming and rape. A child aged eight in Lincolnshire who met a paedophile on a dating app exchanged photos of a ‘sexual nature’ and had a ‘sexual conversation’ with him. He was arrested.

A girl, 16, with Down’s syndrome, sent intimate pictures to a man she met via a dating app.

The scale of abuse – uncovered by a Sunday Times investigation – is likely to be bigger as only ten out of 46 police forces replied to requests for information by the newspaper.

Simon Bailey, the chief constable of Norfolk Police, said: ‘This technology is facilitating child abuse. If you are a young boy exploring your sexuality and you go on [dating apps],

‘Facilitating child abuse’

you are leaving yourself open to exploitation.’

A Grindr spokesman said: ‘Our team is constantly working to improve our digital and human screening tools to prevent and remove improper underage use.’

Tinder said it uses both automated and manual tools to moderate users, including scanning profiles for ‘red flag’ images, and said it also depended on users to report profiles that may belong to a minor.

A Tinder spokesman said: ‘We utilise a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation... to prevent, monitor and remove minors and other inappropriate behaviour from our app.

‘We don’t want minors on Tinder.’