What Parents Should Know About "Dating" Apps

Flirting, dating (and, yes, even "hooking up") are a lot easier to do in the digital age. Today, downloading a dating app, like the most well-known one -- Tinder -- takes no more than a moment, and suddenly you have a whole world of possible "dates" at your fingertips. Many of these dating apps have found an eager and enthusiastic user base amongst teens, with new apps popping up regularly.

ONLINE DATING AND RELATIONSHIPS: HOW TO KEEP KIDS SAFE

While apprehensive about online dangers in general, U.S. parents are also becoming increasingly aware and concerned about the kinds of digital relationships their teens are having. According to Pew Research:

Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly. In fact, the number of 18-24 year-olds college age students using online or mobile dating apps has increased nearly fourfold over the past three years (from 5% to 22%), and 15% of adults use consider them a legitimate way to meet someone.

By the time most of kids are teens, they’re practically experts at forging digital friendships, sometimes making the progression to online dating a natural next step. As a result, more young people use mobile and digital dating apps than any other age group.

ONE IN FOUR TEENS HAVE DATED OR HOOKED UP WITH SOMEONE THEY MET FIRST WITH ONLINE.

For today's teens, social media and modern tech play a huge role in how they are meeting, communicating and breaking up. ​Mobile devices provide freedom for teens to test boundaries, meet people outside of their peer groups and attempt to feel and appear more mature—often without a parent peering over the shoulder.

​​This means parents need to keep an open line of communication with their kids about digital friendships and later, romance.

"One of the biggest issues I see over and over as a lawyer,” says Streaming Lawyer, Mitch Jackson, “is when it comes to teens engaging with each other and developing new ‘digital relationships,’ this ease of use and perceived social acceptance causes many teens to fail to appreciate the potential safety risks and long-term privacy consequences as they relate to their digital interactions and dating efforts. Lives are being turned upside down with a quick tap or swipe of a finger."

A teen’s privacy isn’t the only worry, though. Broadcasting their physical location to strangers is a concern too.

Online relationship and sexting expert, Dr. Michelle Drouin, warns, “As with all online daters, teen online daters need to be very cautious when chatting or meeting with people they don’t know. I would be especially wary of my teen using any apps that use geo-location to make matches.”

Here’s why: In 2012, in three separate incidents underage teens connected with predators online via Skout, a location-based “flirting” app. All three cases ended with alleged sexual assault or rape at the hands of men who were masquerading as teens to lure potential victims. To Skout’s credit, they briefly suspended operations in order to tighten safety protocols. As result, a teen's exact location is no longer revealed on the app, only a general region.

“Compared to some social media targeting teens, Skout is more PG-13 than NC-17,” says one parent, “probably due to increased moderation. Still, it's not perfectly safe, and parents and teens might want to communicate about the potential dangers of any meet-up app.”​​

PARENTAL MONITORING​​

While geo-location software can open the door to dangers like the

ones described above, they can

also be useful for parents seeking to stay more closely connected with their digital kids. Parental monitoring tools that use geo-location can help shield kids from possible online problems such as cyberbullying, sexting and predators.

For example, Mobicip is a state-of-the-art parental control filtering app that works on all devices, including PCs, mobile phones and tablets, and includes geo-fencing software plus other great features. It:

• Manages and blocks specific apps kids use, including social media and online dating sites.

• Offers an easy-to-use interface that allows parents to tailor desired device usage for each child by age.

• Lets parents schedule and manage when and how much time kids spend online.

• Alerts parents to offensive content and language.

Still, no parental control software comes close to good old-fashioned conversation. So talk to your kids about all of their relationships — online and off. And be aware, that most digital natives will know how to disable parental controls, so be sure you have an honest conversation with your children about how you protect them online.

This blog post was originally published 2-17-17.

Cynthia Lieberman co-founder, CyberWise.org and has a graduate degree in Media Psychology and Social Change. She serves as a content marketing and PR consultant for Fortune 500 companies, including major Hollywood studios, Virtual Reality and healthcare, serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), and teaches Social Media Marketing at UCLA Extension. @liebermanc

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