Police warn of the dangers of teens using Tinder: Sex predators could use it to track victims

EXCLUSIVE: There are fears sex predators will prey on the thousands of teens who are using dating app Tinder after it was revealed children as young as 13 are using the app to enhance their “street cred”.

4/4/14. Feature issue big read. Its about Tinder - a dating app on iphones. Not your standard shoot here - we're not showing the faces of our talent Clancy Bennett or Laura Poole. Pic Keryn Stevens

• Survey found more schoolkids using Tinder than singles over 35

• Teens using app to boast about people who want to hook up with them

• Police warn children using app could be targeted by sexual predators

• Parents urged to have open discussion with children about dangers

THERE are fears sex predators will prey on the thousands of young teens who are using dating app Tinder.

Children as young as 13 are using the controversial site to enhance their “street cred” by seeing how many match-ups they can score. But police are warning they do not realise the potential danger they are putting themselves in.

It comes as surveys show the Tinder app, which has a section for 13- to 17-year-olds as well as one for over 18s, is being used by more schoolkids than Australian singles over 35.

Children as young as 13 are using the controversial site to enhance their “street cred” by seeing how many match-ups they can score.

Children have no way of knowing for certain the real age of the person they are matching with because it is based on voluntary personal details given to the user’s Facebook account.

This week a 13-year-old Sydney schoolgirl joined the Tinder teen app under the supervision of The Daily Telegraph.

It took just minutes for her to download the software onto her personal smartphone and start swiping for match-ups.

Once downloaded from the app store, Tinder asked to access her Facebook account.

And because the girl’s Facebook account age was set for a 13-year-old, the Tinder app downloaded the “teen” version allowing her to view only boys or girls aged between 13 and 17.

But because birthdates can be set to anything a user likes on Facebook there is no way of verifying the “boys” the young girl was connecting with were the age they claimed to be.

Australian cyber-safety expert Susan McLean said some girls were using Tinder to “boast about how many people want to hook up with them”.

“Adults have been murdered after a meeting on Tinder — there is no safe way to be on Tinder. This is a geolocation app so you are giving away your precise location,” she said.

“Tinder is full of dodgy people and giving away your location is highly problematic.”

NSW police said teenagers and parents should be aware of the potential dangers.

“Everyone, not just teenagers, should be careful about meeting people they have only ever engaged with online,” Detective Inspector Michael Haddow, manager of the NSW Child Exploitation internet unit, said.

“Our advice to parents is talk to your kids so you know what they are doing and point out that not everyone is honest on these sites.’’

Children’s eSafety Commissioner Alastair MacGibbon said teens using Tinder to talk to adults was similar to “sneaking into a nightclub underage”.

“It’s dangerous,” he said.

“But unlike online dating apps, nightclubs have bouncers and are fined when caught serving underage teens.”

And technology company Nuix Asia-Pacific’s director of security Michael Wilkinson, a former digital forensic specialist with the NSW Police, said dating apps such as Tinder were the “perfect target for people-grooming”.

“It is a trivial process to fake age, fake an account and fake a profile,” he said.

“There is no robust age-identification mechanism.”