Sorry Teens, Your Tinder Party Is Over

Tinder is swiping left on teenagers.

Starting next week, Tinder will discontinue the use of the dating and hookup app for anyone under age 18. Since Tinder launched in 2012, Tinder users had to be at least 13. Users age 13 to 17 could only match with others in that group. Now, users must be at least 18, TechCrunch reports.

“On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences,” Tinder’s official statement said. “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.”

This policy will impact less than 3% of Tinder’s user base. Rosette Pambakian, a Tinder spokeswoman, said the company has been reviewing the policy since early this year. One potential risk for minors is that sexual predators can create fake profiles to pass as a teenager. Other dating brands, such as OkCupid and Match.com, also enforce an adults-only restriction.

[TechCrunch]