Until quite recently, no one knew that there was actually a term called “trend chasers’ till it became an entire thing in itself. The point here is that teenagers all around the world are trend-chasers. They want to participate and be a part of everything that is hip and cool and edgy in this time and age. Furthermore, since teens cannot quite be classified as adults yet since they are not old enough or as kids since they are not entirely young enough to be that either, they have an urge to do all things grown up. They dress like 20 years old, all they while acting like they are still 10 years old.
This is exactly what attracts teens to sites like tinder.
Why Tinder?
Prior to Tinder, there were a number of online dating websites, but none of them were particularly able to achieve the class and the standard that Tinder was able to. Being the Facebook of online dating sites, soon after its inception, Tinder was able to make its place amongst the most used mobile app out there courtesy of its swipe right feature and the fact that the people who are only mutually interested in one another could talk to one another freely. This made tinder quite a favorite dating app among adults and since teens love to do anything that an adult could do, they hopped on the Tinder wagon pretty quickly.
And the rest was History
Implications of Teen Tinder Use
As soon as teenagers as young as 15 years of age started flocking over to Tinder, it gave people with nefarious intentions regarding the subject the opportunity to follow these teens onto the website and then groom them or even catfish them in incomprehensible ways.
While those teens with a lack of self-esteem issues might be able to keep their head above water and not be fooled and ensnared into their traps quite as easily, but the ones that suffer from issue dealing with the lack of confidence, as well as self-esteem, might not be as fortunate.
Pedophiles, groomers, kidnappers and sex offenders all seek out people with body image issue, who can easily by lured into a false sense of security and then do as they please while adults may be able to see through their empty flattery and sympathies, a lonely teenager might just fall for it.
How Can This Situation Be Remedied?
While there is no good solution to a problem as grave as this one since both teens and the people who might just be on tinder to prey on them could turn out to be quite cunning and quite evasive as well as inventive if they feel like it.
If you, as a parent, block their access to Tinder, they would find alternative ways to get in touch with the subject of their interest. In such cases, physically monitoring someone is rarely going to turn out to be fruitful. The only way parents can catch up to such sneaky teenagers is by being sneakier themselves.
While there are a number of means through which parents can attempt to be sneaky, the most reliable ones among the lot are by using parental monitoring applications to not only keep an eye on your child’s activities online but also;
- Block access to websites that you deem unsafe for them to use.
- Delete unsavory apps such as tinder that you disapprove of
- Block people that you deem unsafe from calling them and eliminate them from their lives.
- Keep an eye on the social media portals and messaging app to see if they are in communication with the person that you prohibited them from contacting via Tinder.
- Monitor if they use apps like proof and such to hide their activities on the app you have prohibited them from using such as Tinder and such.
- Keep looking through their browsing history to ensure they are safe and out of harm’s way.
Using these methods and more you can ensure that, in one way or another, your teen is out of the harm’s way as long as he or she does not become the one responsible for the actions and be able to make sensible decisions.
Author Bio:
Angelica fills in as tech and digital parenting expert. She is managing technical content on privacy control on social media, listen to live phone calls, and monitor social instant messaging logs. Follow her on twitter @angelicadowson2
