Dating Apps Removed By Apple And Google After FTC Warns On Use By Underage Kids
Three dating apps have been removed from Apple and Google stores following a warning from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that the apps "allow adults to find and communicate with children." The removals came at the weekend, after the FTC had sent a stern warning to Wildec, the Ukraine-based developer of FastMeet, Meet24 and Meet4U, telling them that "despite a statement in each app's Privacy Policy that users under 13 years of age are not allowed to use the apps, users who indicate they are under 13 are not prevented from accessing and using the apps or being visible to other users." The apps store users' ages and even enable real-time location data, and so "sexual predators can search by age and location to identify children nearby." The FTC tested one of the apps and found that "FTC staff was able to search for other users by age and location to find users near our location who indicated that they were as young as 12 years old."