Scandals that have recently became public raised the issue of child protection on dating apps like Grindr and Tinder and underlined the importance of keeping the dating apps management accountable for protection children and preventing abuse on their platforms.
While both Grindr and Tinder claim to have implemented measures to prevent minors from using the apps, over 30 cases have been investigated since 2015 after victims managed to bypass the age checks according to the Sunday Times. A Freedom of Information request by Sunday Times showed 60 cases of child sex offences through online dating services, with the youngest victim being only eight years old.
The government is preparing a set of questions for dating apps asking them to explain measures they have in place to prevent minors from being on their platform, while the Culture Secretary mentioned a possibility to apply the new legislations requiring porn sites to use age verification to the dating apps as well.