Australian children as young as 11 are engaging in “risk-taking” behaviours on adult dating apps and websites, matchmaking platforms, and explicit content sites, a worrying study has found.
The Australian Institute of Criminology survey, published last month, found that about 50% of participants who used dating apps as minors had shared or received sexually explicit services, with some ending up being coerced into sex with adults, sometimes in exchange for money.
The results come after an African refugee was jailed in Canberra for sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl he met on adult dating app Badoo, which is not covered by the Labor government’s under-16s social media ban, due to come into effect on December 10.
Nor will any of the “adult-based platform” apps and websites mentioned by study participants as being used by children, including Tinder, Grindr, OnlyFans, FetLife, Seeking, and Sugar Daddy, be restricted by the new laws.
The study noted that the AIC previously found that almost 10% of dating app users started when they were underage, and the November survey of 46 participants from across Australia found that about half had met up in person with adults they had “matched” with online, some aged over 40.
“This study has found that underage use of adult-based platforms exposes children to risk not only in online environments but also in offline environments,” the study concluded.
Some participants said they used dating apps to meet other underage people for sex, and one woman recounted engaging in sexual activities with a man she’d met on an app for $700 each time when aged just 14.
“Pretty much being a prostitute, pretty nasty,” she said.
The survey comes after another study published in June found that girls as young as 12 are aware of online prostitution sites such as OnlyFans and see them as an appealing alternative to traditional work, and in May school principals warned children as young as six were being exposed to pornography.
The social media ban will affect Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads, Reddit and Kick, but far-left platform Bluesky is not included.
Header image credit: Cottonbro Studio (Pexels).
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