A few days ago, your 13-year-old could open dating app Tinder on their phone and scroll through the service’s slew of users. If you were opposed to that idea all along (or had no idea that Tinder’s minimum age was so low), good news. The company is now upping is minimum age requirements to 18.
Beginning next week, users will need to be 18 or older to use the service, according to TechCrunch’s quote of Tinder’s communications VR Rosette Pambakian.
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Previously, users as young as 13 could “swipe right” and begin chatting to potential matches. Although these age categories could only match with users in a similar age bracket, clearly Tinder has had a change of heart.
Related: Tinder introduces Instagram integration and more common friends
“On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences,” explains Tinder in the statement.
“Consistent with this responsibility, we have decided to discontinue service for under 18 users. We believe this is the best policy moving forward. This change will take effect next week.”
This might not prevent users from lying about their birth dates to hop on board regardless, but it does at least provide parents with a little more peace of mind (we imagine).
Tinder has been downloaded well over 100-million times, and sees around 1.4-billion swipes daily.
