Tinder has secured itself as a key player in modern romance with consumers of all ages swiping right and left on the dating app. While the app currently allows anyone aged 13 years and older to use the dating platform, things are about to change.
According to Tinder’s vice president of communications, Rosette Pambakian, users younger than 18 will be banned on the app. Tinder says this change will affect less than 3 percent of their global users.
“On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences,” said Tinder in a statement to TechCrunch. “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.”
Tinder’s measure to keep dating safe for those between the ages of 13 and 17 was to only allow that age demographic to match within their own age pool.
“We’ve been reviewing this policy since early this year and believe it’s the right thing to do,” said Pambakian to TechCrunch. “A number of factors go into making a decision like this, but we’re confident we landed on the right policy.”
This news comes shortly after Tinder CEO Sean Rad told Recode that the app will be transgender-friendly. While Rad did not give specifics on how the company will accomplish this, he did promise change and revealed that Tinder will work with GLAAD and activist Andrea James.
“For a long time we haven’t done enough to give them a good experience,” said Rad. “It’s harder for them to get what they are looking for. We have to modify our experience to address that.”
