Please see below message which has been forwarded to us by the Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Board who have asked schools to share the information below due to concerns about dating apps.
School tells parents to delete MyLOL app after concerns raised that it’s being used by sexual predators
“We strongly advise that you talk to your child about this and our advice would be to delete the app and block the website.”
A school in Manchester has sent out a warning to parents following concerns a teenage dating app is being used by sinister predators.
One school posted the alert on its Facebook page over concerns about MyLOL.
On further investigation, school bosses found ‘the app is being used for inappropriate activities against young people’.
The Facebook message states: “We strongly advise that you talk to your child about this and our advice would be to delete the app and block the website.”
On its website, MyLOL bills itself as the ‘#1 teen dating site in the US, Australia, UK and Canada’ and claims to have more than 300,000 members around the world. It invites users to meet ‘thousands of teenagers like you’ and then goes on to describe how users can ‘chat with members or privately with someone.’
Teenagers are encouraged to update a profile and share pictures.
This is the MyLOL logo to look for…
It’s not the first time concerns have been raised about dating apps aimed at young people.
Back in November, the NSPCC warned against new app Yellow, labelled ‘Tinder for teens’, which could be used by predators to groom youngsters. Like Tinder, Yellow allows its users to swipe right and left to either ‘like’ or ‘pass’ another user, and if there’s a match, they can begin chatting.
A spokesman for NSPCC said: “Any app that allows strangers to send photos to children or vice versa is troubling – particularly where the images being exchanged are of a sexual nature.
“Yellow’s settings that enable adults to view children, through a service blatantly aimed at flirting and relationships, also creates an opportunity for sexual predators to target young people. “This needs to be urgently addressed.