--- title: "Company in Huge Trouble for Creating “Tinder for Kids” App" description: "The company Wizz is coming under serious scrutiny by regulators and watchdogs for enabling child sexual predators at scale." date: "2025-12-14" modified: "2025-12-14" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/tinder-kids-trouble" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Company in Huge Trouble for Creating “Tinder for Kids” App ![The company Wizz is coming under serious scrutiny by regulators and watchdogs for enabling child sexual predators on a huge scale.]() *Getty / Futurism* These days, startups are trying just about everything. Some of them are wacky, if harmless, like the company turning your [loved ones' remains]() into stones for you to display. Others fall into the "why did you do that" category — like the startup selling an [AI-powered toilet camera]() to analyze your stool. A startup called Wizz is clearly the latter, in the darkest sense imaginable. Peddling "age-appropriate engagement" for users as young as 13, Wizz is a French app built on the swiping framework typical of dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. Given the [massive rise]() in child predation enabled by social media, that's a huge responsibility — and one Wizz has fallen way short of. Though it's meant to connect kids with others their age, in reality it's become a mechanism for predators to meet underaged victims. As noted by staffers at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation [writing for *The Hill*](), Wizz has been implicating in a predictably stunning number of child sexual abuse incidents. Though the [app claims]() to use "sophisticated AI safety algorithms for age verification" in order to sort users by age, real world examples show these safeguards aren't enough to deter child predators. In Hawai'i, for example, an 11-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted by an active-duty US Marine told police they had [first met on Wizz](). Despite the app's "ironclad policies," the 19-year-old perpetrator had allegedly posed as a 15-year-old, which the app's AI safety algorithm failed to catch. Other examples abound, like a 23-year-old pretending to be 14 in order to [sexually assault]() an actual 14-year-old, or a 27-year-old claiming to be 16 in order to [rape multiple underage girls](). After receiving pushback from the company, the National Center for Exploitation staffers even tested the verification system with a 28-year-old staffer, who was able to register an account as a 16-year-old. The app has come under increasing scrutiny from both [the media]() and [consumer watchdogs](), which have helped put pressure on platforms like the Google Play and Apple App Store to [remove it entirely](). Though those efforts were temporarily successful, Wizz was able to worm its way back in, touting new and improved safety measures. Now, however, Congressional Republicans and Democrats are reaching across the aisle to push for the Kids Online Safety Act. If successful, the bill would establish a "Duty of Care" for online platforms to prove themselves to US regulators in order to avoid legal liability for harm, similar to the process [auto manufacturers]() are supposed to follow to put out a new car. As the National Center for Exploitation staffers astutely observed, tech is the only industry *not* broadly held to these liability standards regarding the use of their products. Whether the bill makes it across the finish line remains to be seen — but if it does, it won't be a moment too soon. *Updated to clarify that the Hill piece was written by staff at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.* **More on apps:** *[New App Lets Users Bet on Deadly Conflicts in Real Time]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()