Report says some underage users contracted virus on dates set up via platform
Concerns have surfaced over minors’ access to mobile dating platforms with a popular Chinese gay dating app suspending registration of new users after a report that some underage users contracted HIV on dates set up via the app.
Blued, which was launched in 2010 and now boasts 40 million registered users, said on Sunday that it would launch a “comprehensive content audit and regulation”, and crack down on texts, pictures and groups that involved minors, as well as underage users posing as adults.
“Blued has always forbidden juveniles from logging on to and using the app,” the company said in a statement on its verified Twitter-like Weibo account.
It added that it had used artificial intelligence to weed out pornographic content since last year, and vowed to further support HIV/Aids prevention work.
In a cover story this week, prominent magazine Caixin Weekly reported that some minors were heavy users of the app, with teenagers even live-streaming.
