Everyone is flocking to mobile dating apps, even minors and people under 18.

All dating apps require users to be at least over 18 to sign up. Users 17 and under are not allowed to use dating apps.

In this article, we’re going to answer the question of whether minors can use dating apps.

Minors Using Dating Apps

With the explosion of mobile dating apps in the last decade, the old way of meeting someone organically has completely gone out the window. Mobile dating apps have made the dating process much easier to meet someone.

As young professionals and adults flock to mobile dating services, there are also minors and young people who will try out these mobile apps in hopes of finding love or a casual date.

Men or women under 18 years old are not permitted to use mobile dating apps. This is for the user’s safety to ensure nothing illegal ever happens when meeting an older and a younger person.

Dating apps make it clear that you must be at least 18 years old to use their services.

This rule remains the same worldwide, as dating services do not want their users to break laws or have anything happen that could threaten their reputations.

Which Dating Apps Can You Use At 17 Years Old?

There is no dating app that you can use at 17 years old. As mentioned, the law for dating apps is to include users above 18 years old.

This protects the minor from breaking any laws and ensures that the older adult doesn’t commit any crimes.

If you’re 17, we recommend staying looking for couples in your high school or at a local movie theater until you turn 18. This is to protect yourself from any males or females with bad intentions.

Dating services, unfortunately, have made it a bit easier for any person to join their app. Recently, apps like Bumble and Tinder used to force users to use their Facebook profiles to enter the dating service.

This seemed like a great idea, allowing young adults who may not have a Facebook but still aspire to date online. This allows an influx of users to join the platform and create a username by simply adding a valid phone number.

This created a loophole for underage users, as they can create a profile simply by having a phone number and saying they’re 18.

Users could create a fake Facebook profile, but it’s much more of a hassle to do that and create an online dating profile.

❤️ Pro Tip: If you’re sick of finding people who are just looking for one-night stands, we recommend trying eHarmony.

It’s one of the highest-rated online dating apps in the world. eHarmony users are actually actively looking for relationships. Give it a try here for free and see if you can tell the difference.

How To Protect Yourself Against Minors & Catfishes

Catfishing is a term made famous from MTV’s renowned show “Cat Fish.” The show featured two hosts who helped people online dating try to find out if the person on the other end was real or fake.

Once they found enough information, they arranged a meetup with the fake person and confronted them. This usually led to tears and heartbreak for the user when they discovered the person they were attracted to both mentally and physically was fake.

Sadly, they found out the person was fake on the other end most of the time.

This is a common occurrence among online dating users for a few reasons...

• Users may feel as if older photos look better, therefore they will upload pictures that are 2-3 years older. This may happen if the user gains weight or looks different.
• Minors may be trying to impersonate someone else for a laugh or to mess with people. This is common among younger male audiences who want to talk to girls on apps like Tinder.
• Users may create fake profiles in order to bait cheating boyfriends or girlfriends in order to extract information. Creating a fake profile and talking to them, in order to use it as evidence is also seen on online dating profiles.

The first rule in protecting yourself against minors on dating apps is to stay away from the 18-year-old range if you’re not 18.

We recommend starting at 19 years old or above. This will help to eliminate minors who are borderline 17/18 years old.

❤️ Better Than Tinder: Tinder is great for casual relationships, but a lot more users are looking for serious relationships on it. Avoid the stress, arguments, and drama if you’re simply looking for something casual.

If you’re looking for a platform with users strictly looking for casual relationships & hookups, we recommend checking out Ashley Madison.

If you’re an older adult, stay away from anyone who looks underage or who may even be close to being underage.

To protect against catfishes or people who may be fake, we recommend using Snapchat. Snapchat has a bad reputation on dating apps as it’s often used as a tool for guys and girls to see bad pictures.

We like to recommend users to see if the user is fake without actually meeting them.

Once you establish that the user has Snapchat, have them send a selfie of themselves, so you’re able to see if they’re fake or not.

If they appear to be fake or not to your liking, kindly tell them that you’re not interested.

Again, this may be the best method without having to meet them in person to figure out if they’re real.

The Love Of Your Life Is One Swipe Away…

Learn our dating app secrets to get more matches and find that one perfect connection.

This will also help avoid catfishing situations on MTV’s “Cat Fish” show. It will also save you time and energy to decide who’s on the other end. Simply having a picture or even a Snapchat video of the user, you’re able to dictate a few things:

• If the person is real or not
• Personality
• Facial Features
• Awkwardness

These are just a few things you’re able to determine by using Snapchat as a tool to determine who’s on the other end.

Conclusion

We recommend being as open and upfront as possible on mobile dating apps. If you’re using the mobile dating app illegally ( as a minor), delete it to save yourself and the other user from any legal trouble.

If you believe that you’re being tricked and the person on the other end is fake, we recommend downloading Snapchat and asking the user to send a picture of themselves.

If you’re using a mobile app like Bumble, it has a picture feature built directly into the app, which you can use instead of Snapchat.

Apps like Tinder and Hinge don’t have camera features (probably for the better). This is a way to determine if the person is on the other end.

Be truthful faithful, and don’t put the other user in trouble using a mobile dating app if you’re a minor.