Tinder bans under-18s: Moral panic averted

Ubiquitous youth hook-up app, Tinder, is banning under-18s from using its service.

Currently, self-declared teenagers between 13-17 are ring-fenced from adults in their own dating community, some 3 million strong. That is easy enough to shut down.

With this decision, Tinder aims to head off the inevitable legal spats for facilitating dating between people under the age of consent - which is set at the improbably old age of 18 in many US states. But will it be enough to placate the child protection campaigners?

Let's all agree that this ban is largely symbolic, as teens can pretend to be older - by simply tweaking the Facebook credentials that Tinder relies on for age verification. And since human sexuality is not something that begins at 18 - good luck to them. ®