‘Tinder for teens’ app contains sexual harassment and racism: report
nypost.comtold the Times of the Paris-based hookup app, which boasts 3.6 million users in the UK alone.The teen-targeting network sparked outrage among teachers in the UK, who sent parents a letter cautioning “due to the nature of this app, your child may come across content that is not appropriate to them.”A Times reporter spent 10 days posing as a 15-year-old on Yubo, which she noted didn’t require an age verification.During her “To Catch A Predator”-esque investigation, the incognito newshound claimed that users would frequently proposition her and ask for nude pics.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old black male was reportedly told by a potential user that they’d let him “pick my cotton any day,” according to the Times.Drug use — an allegedly banned topic on the site — also came up during in the online discussions, which frequently took place while the teens were doing their homework or even finishing school, per the Times.
The undercover reporter recounted overhearing on a livestream chat one man telling a 15-year-old girl about acid and ketamine and asking if she’d “do a line off my [erection]?”And unfortunately, the damage the app caused wasn’t just verbal, as in many cases, adults join the site.
Just last week, a UK man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl that he’d reportedly met hours earlier on Yubo.Ian Critchley, who oversees child protection for the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, accused Yubo of boasting lax digital security standards that allow users to “commit some of the most abhorrent acts.”“These platforms are multimillion-pound companies,” he said, fuming.
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