Month: June 2018

I recently saw a story about the dangers of anonymous dating apps; and the deadly consequences they’ve had for some young people. This particular story profiled a teenager who met someone online, he gained her trust and she agreed to secretly meet-up with him. Her parents learned of her secret escapades with this man and intervened and got the authorities involved. This story ended well for this young lady, but not all have been so fortunate. She is still faced with the emotional and psychological consequences of the situation but she is alive.

This story brought to light just how little many parents know of online dating and their teenager’s internet use. When it comes to the internet, social media, and teenagers a parent can never be too careful. The following are a few online dating apps that all parents should know about:

Kik. An instant messaging app similar to texting that has over 90 million users. Safety tips for parents. The app is free and similar to WhatsApp but has an internal browser meant to encourage users to spend more time in the app.

Flirt. This app promotes online “no-hassle flirting” and definitely one parents should know about. It’s relative ease of use makes it a popular one for teens.

Tinder. Swipe right to “like” or left to “pass”. Tinder is a photo and messaging dating app where the user browse and either like or pass on pictures of individuals that are within a certain mile radius of them. If two people both “like” each other’s photo, the app allows them to message each other.

Skout.  This is another “flirting” app and allows teens to set-up profiles. The teens are placed in a separate group from the adult users and are allowed to post to a feed, comment on other user’s posts, chat and share photos. Users can redeem or cash in points when they want details on who checks them out or want to search outside of their geographic area for new users.

Badoo. This is an adults only dating app that is meant for the 18 and older audience. This app has over 200 million users worldwide and tracks the location of its users and matches their profiles to other users who are nearby.

This is not an exhaustive list but some of the more popular sites that teens are using.