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A dating app for smartphones has suspended access for teen users after a series of reported rapes of underage users in the United States.

The app called Skout, which was designed as a location-based dating service, made the move after learning that some of its users had been victimized.

“The safety of our community is our number one concern,” founder and chief executive Christian Wiklund said on the company blog this week.

Wiklund said the San Francisco company has been actively monitoring and screening to keep the under-18 users and adults in separate communities.

“However, it’s become clear to us that these measures aren’t enough,” he said.

“In recent weeks, we’ve learned of several incidents involving a few bad actors trying to take advantage of some of our younger members.

“We thought carefully about what to do. We know how much Skout means to our teen community, and, at Skout, our community means everything to us. For now, we believe that there’s only one thing we can do: until we can design better protections, we are temporarily shutting down the under-18 community.” 

Skout, with more than five million subscribers, is the largest location-based dating app.

It was originally aimed at adults but added a separate service for 13- to 17-year-olds last year after kids started using the app.

The New York Times reported that three men have been accused of raping children they met using the mobile app.

According to the report, the men were accused of posing as teenagers in the Skout teen forum.

It said a 15-year-old Ohio girl said she had been raped by a 37-year-old man.

A 12-year-old girl in California and a 13-year-old Wisconsin boy were also assaulted.

“I’m disgusted by what’s happened here,” Wiklund told the newspaper. “One case is too many. When you have three, it looks like a pattern. This is my worst fear.” 

On the blog, Wiklund said, “We are extremely sorry about this, but we don’t believe we have any other choice. We will not compromise the safety of our community, and right now, our concerns are too significant to simply stand by and do nothing.” 

He said the company is working “to build better safeguards, including mechanisms for age verification”.

Comments

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Wed Jun 19 15:07:31 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 14, 2012

sabza007

Only if our government and private institutions were this proactive.
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Jun 14, 2012

mthosam

in America, Americans do not rape but Africans do. Africa you are not alone, they pretend to be fine while they usher the devil.
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Jun 14, 2012

Mphokolodi02

Ba a rata le bona ne ba ya kae? and why r dey dating online every1 knows its dangerous
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Jun 14, 2012

wesbuw22

@ Mphokolodi02 LOL,

They might as well go to jail also, wt r dey doing talking to older men
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Jun 14, 2012

ONEE

ne facebook injalo
I dont trust this thing of meeting with facebook , bloggers, or any form of technology friends without any proven track of identification.

people meet people on fb fall in love , they dont know who they really are.
atleast their work email, tellephones a couple of conversations and meetings in public places with friends and i mean very strong identification concrete info at hand must be vissible even to your close friends or family
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Jun 15, 2012

BrentJ

@ mthosam
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No offense, dude, but a large percentage of serial rapists/murders in the USA are NOT of African descent. In fact, most are white. There's evil people in every race, I just hope there is a dominant number of good people in every race. What scares me is that it seems the evil is expanding at a faster and faster rate.

@ ONEE
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You're absolutely right! Meeting strangers that are sitting behind an electronic veil could have catastrophic consequences. Never meet someone in person at least the first few times alone. Either side could be setting the other up to do harm or even just to rob them!

It's a bummer the world has people that victimize others.
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Jun 15, 2012

CheeseBoy

The introduction of technology, specifically the internet and social media will without a doubt bring about some dangers. before all this technology rapists and pedophiles had a tough time hunting for victims.

The internet has made it easier for sex predators to hunt freely. teach your kids/lil brothers and sisters not to befriend strangers (even if they claim to be young) on Facebook mix-it and social sites.

people always wanna learn the hard way
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Jun 15, 2012

Nkasegobotsesephirise

Cellphone dating mxm,people do not have taste!
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Jun 15, 2012

Voetzek

You want some, come and get some chana, I dont care when we make date via cellphone must have a closure.
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