The idea of your teen using social media shouldn’t be surprising, but what does shock parents is that kids are often using these apps for hooking up. What’s worse, is that many kids aren’t even old enough to use these dating apps, but a lack of age verification makes it easy for them to sign up.
The team at Cyberwise has created a list of the top teen dating/hookup apps to help parents navigate their teen’s social media usage. Below is a breakdown of each platform, and we have embedded Cyberwise’s downloadable PDF at the bottom of this post.
Tinder
Often referred to as the top dating app for adults, Tinder has a surprising amount of teens on the platform. Even though the age requirement is 18, kids just need to figure out the right month/year to make themselves appear to be 18 years old and they can easily join. Needless to say, this can expose them to much older and more sophisticated online users.
The popular dating app’s interface is often compared to a game-like structure, where a user swipes right to ” like” on a profile or left to “pass.” If someone you swiped right for swipes right for you, it’s an instant match. Once matched, users have the opportunity to directly message each other.
There are plenty of free dating apps on this list…