Government funded set up of young teen dating app
Commercial organisations see young people as a gap in the dating app market
A Good Morning Britain investigation has discovered that the Government funded the set up of a teen dating app which is accessible to children as young as 13.
The GMB investigation found that Blushr's Twitter feed contained links to articles about having sex and other sexual content inappropriate for 13 year olds.
We investigated five teen dating platforms including Blushr, Hot or Not, and MyLOL which are available to teenagers aged 13 upwards.
Two of the dating platforms investigated, including Hot or Not, have since closed down after inappropriate sexual content was discovered on them by Good Morning Britain. This follows Tinder's announcement last week that it would be shutting down the part of the app open to 13 to 17 year olds, following our probe.
"These sites are facilitating contact between young people and the sorts of adults we're investigating each day" says Jonathan Baggaley, Head of Education at Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).
"There's an expectation that because you're there, you're up for hooking up," says Jim Gamble former Head of CEOP, talking about what makes these sites different from any other type of social network site. "We haven't got sufficient undercover police operating on these websites because it's like shooting fish in a barrel," he explains.
If you're a young person who's been affected by dating apps you can contact Childline for help