Teen Tinder? An Analysis of App-store Reviews of Adolescent “friendship” Apps

Background: The Internet provides numerous opportunities for adolescents to meet and chat with people who they have never met in person. These interactions allow for the possibility of crime and exploitation, including exposure to child pornography, stalking, and harassment. Although applications (“apps”) specifically for dating, such as Tinder and Grindr, require the user to be 17+, numerous apps with similar designs and premises exist for children as young as 12. These apps are designed for minors to connect with strangers online, and although marketed as a way to “make friends,” sexual content, bullying, racism, and other forms of harassment are pervasive. Currently, these apps are minimally regulated, potentially facilitating communication between sexual predators and minors. The present study aims to assess the prevalence of inappropriate content on “friendship” apps available to children ages 12+ in the App Store.

Methods: This study analyzed the reviews of “friendship” apps for ages 12+: Wizz, Wink, Hoop, Tiya, and ItsMe. The 2,500 most recent reviews were collected from the Apple App Store using a web scraper from the “appler” package in R. These reviews were coded for mentions of specific categories of inappropriate content on the app, including sexually explicit content, references to dating, scams, harassment, and age, language, and safety concerns (Table 1).

Results: Overall, 22.4% (n= 559) of the 2,500 reviews referenced one or more categories of inappropriate content present on the apps. Of the 2,500 reviews, 7.48% referenced sexual content, 3.84% referenced dating, 9.56% referenced scams, 1.44% referenced harassment, 4.72% referenced age and language concerns, and 2.48% referenced safety concerns (Figure 1). Reviewers referred to the apps as “kid tinder” (Wizz) and noted the presence of “so many pedophiles” (Hoop).

Conclusion: These findings point to an alarming presence of predatory and fraudulent content in apps marketed towards young adolescents. The limited regulation of this content poses a significant danger to vulnerable minors navigating these platforms, who may be manipulated into engaging with explicit sexual content or providing sensitive information. App developers and the App Store should implement stricter policing of “friendship” apps by addressing inappropriate behaviors through employing qualified moderators, adding age restrictions and profile verifications, and limiting access to explicit content. Apps that are unable to prevent the presence of harmful content should be removed from the App Store. Parents and caregivers should be informed of the potential dangers involved with their child’s use of these social networking apps. Pediatricians should be aware of the dangers of “friendship” apps as another avenue for child abuse and exploitation to occur and should work with parents to be able to recognize and remove them from children’s devices.