Perverts using Tinder to target 13-year-old girls for sex, shock investigation reveals
Sick wannabe paedophiles are using Tinder to target underage girls for sex, a disturbing undercover probe has revealed.
Investigators used the app to pose as a 13-year-old girl and were shocked to receive more than 100 messages from seedy older men looking to exploit younger children.
Some of these perverts tried to lure the fake teen away from Tinder and into the murkier world of encrypted communications apps, which hide criminals' identities and prevent police from gathering evidence of their offences.
Tinder has now banned under-18s from using the app amid growing concerns that pervert adults could lie about their age in order to dodge its strict age limits.
Journalists from ITV's Good Morning Britain set up a profile in the name of Amy, a young looking girl who clearly gave her age as 13.
"One even admitted to being 24 and bragged about how he was fooling the internet. "Another man said he was 16 - but in his picture looked like he was in his 40s."
Almost 70 per cent of the men who contacted the fake teen were over the age of consent, with one in five brazenly showing sordid naked pictures on their Tinder profiles.
A total of eight men "directly asked" the 13 year old to have sex with them and two users also requested naked pictures.
"Five asked Amy to contact them via an encrypted app which means it's un-hackable and police can't request or get that information and those messages are deleted automatically," ITV added.
"A further 10 gave their encrypted contact address on their profile page."
Up until this week, people as young as 13 could use Tinder, but were not able to interact with anyone aged 18 or over.
The dating app has now implemented a total ban on under-18s.
In a statement, Tinder said: "On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences to ensure we are delivering the best product.
"Consistent with this responsibility, we decided to discontinue service for under 18 users. This policy had been under review since early this year, and we're confident we have made the right decision."