Most of you are probably familiar with Tinder. It is an online dating application that is linked to a user’s Facebook account. Tinder can display a bunch of people that have similar interests as yours and allow you to swipe right (like them) and swipe left (reject them). If two people mutually like each other, a message box opens up connecting the two.
Tinder is the fastest growing dating applications in the world today. The app was developed by a university student as a mode of communication for college students and the Tinder community has grown enormously over the past few years. Back in the day, it was used by only college teens, but soon Tinder was flooded by all types of people. Adults, children, senior citizens – you name it, they’re right there on Tinder.
Thus, the question arises. Is Tinder a safe app or not. Well, before you answer that question, we’d like to discuss a few things regarding Tinder:
The Age Restriction
Tinder is serious about their age restriction. Tinder restricts people under the age of 13 from signing up for the app – Yes, 13. It seems kind of ridiculous that a dating app would be allowed to kids under the age of 18. Well, Tinder does it. The owner and founder of Tinder stated that almost 17% of the Tinder Community consists of kids under the age of 18. However, due to the increase of cases being reported to the Police, Tinder raised its age restriction to 18. This is a very good move that could help the app move in the right direction. But, there’s always the chance that kids can lie about their age and sneak into Tinder by providing false information on their Facebook account.
Predators on Tinder
There are thousands of people on Tinder that lie about the information that they provide on Tinder. This could include their location, age, and even their interests. It’s true that Tinder picks up person’s interests from their Facebook account but it only takes a couple of minutes to make a new Facebook account with all of the details that they want themselves to have. There have been some people who put in specific information that would lure out underage teens. These people are the ones that parents should be afraid of. These people can do whatever they want, and say whatever they want to your teen and this is truly one of the most discouraging facts about Tinder.
Tracking People through Tinder
The main reason that dating apps are as famous as they are is that they can let you know of eligible men and women that live near you. Tinder also uses a similar mechanism as it can help others track your child’s location down to the street number and even more dangerous thing is that your teen can do the same to others. At the tender age that they are, your child would never be able to figure out who it is on the other side, unlike adults, who would know they kind of person they have at the other end and what would be the most appropriate course of action for something like this.
The Bottom Line
With so many smart advisories against them, it is very easy for a teen to lose themselves and veer off the path they had initially begun walking down of. It might be a best friend that is pushing them towards doing something under the guise of taking a “risk”. It is risks such as these that can put your children in the harm’s way and have them get in touch with people that do not have their best interests at heart. This is a huge problem for parents, that wouldn’t take well to anything harming their kids at all.
In situations such as these ones, the best solution is to get hold of cell phone spy software to keep an eye out for people that might be trying to harm them in any way at all as well as monitor their online activities. This way they can not only know what they have been doing online and what kind of people they have been talking to or dealing with at all times.
