This article was reviewed by Cyndy Etler
and by wikiHow staff writer, Cory Stillman
. Cyndy Etler is a certified teen life coach and award-winning young adult author who divides her time between Providence, Rhode Island, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Cyndy has over two decades of experience working directly with teenagers and supporting adolescent social and emotional health. In 2012, Cyndy founded The Teen Life Coach and began offering support and coaching to struggling teens and their families. She is dual certified through the Youth Coaching Institute and the International Coaching Federation. She has two published memoirs, Dead Inside (2017) and We Can’t Be Friends (2017). She is the narrator for Robert Downey Jr's troubled teen industry podcast The Sunshine Place, and her work has appeared on CNN, Newsday, NPR, and more. In 2017, she founded 1st Block Revolution, a program designed to counteract the school to prison pipeline by helping meet the needs of at-risk teens in the English classroom and supporting teachers. She is an in-demand speaker who previously taught high school English, special education, and English as a second language in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Cyndy has a double-major bachelor's degree in English and American studies and a Master of Education degree from UMass Boston.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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Are you a teenager looking for love online? Or maybe a parent who wants to encourage their child's online dating in a safe and supportive environment? This wikiHow article includes a complete rundown of the most popular and effective dating apps for teens. Remember that online safety is paramount when using these apps. Never give out any personal information, and be very wary of lying about your age in order to pose as an older user.
How to Get the Most from Teen Dating Apps
Teen life coach Cyndy Etler says to consider what you want from a relationship when choosing an app and setting up your profile. Present yourself and your interests in a way that will signal the kind of relationship you want. When you're ready to get started, look into dating apps made for teens like MyLOL and Skout.
Steps
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Use the #1 dating app for users 13-19 years old. MyLOL markets itself as the #1 teen dating app in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. It is the only app that is exclusive to teenagers, as you must be 13 years old to create an account and cannot be over 19. The app is available for both iOS and Android.
- As with any other app, be careful interacting with strangers. Even with the 19-year-old limit, there may be older users posing as a teenager.
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Find people near you with Skout. Skout began by allowing users 13-17 years old to create an account. Now, the app separates those teenage users from its 18+ community, creating a safer environment. Users must verify their age by connecting through Facebook, limiting (but not quite eliminating) the number of impostors. [1] X Research source
- Teens also are unable to take advantage of Skout's search feature. The app remains GPS-based, but will not reveal to teens the exact location of others.
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Livestream and video chat others on Yubo. Yubo is a social networking app designed to facilitate face-to-face interaction. The company partners with Snapchat to incorporate the Snap Inc. camera kit into the app. Livestreaming with up to 10 other users is the main functionality, but you can also video chat and swipe right on profiles.
- Like Skout, Yubo separates its 13-17 community from its 18+ community.
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Older teens may consider using one of the most popular online dating apps. Bumble is among the most popular dating apps out there, but it does not offer a specific teenage community. You must be 17+ to join. Of course, many younger teenagers do still join the app by lying about their age. We do not recommend doing so, but 17-year-olds may still decide to join if they are safe and responsible in their online interactions.
- It may be tempting to join a dating app by lying about your age, but there are several ways in which it might hinder your experience:
- Other users may realize you are younger and quickly unmatch.
- Other users may report you, which could lead to your expulsion from the app altogether.
- When you do finally reach an appropriate age, you will not be able to edit the age on your account, so you will always be 2-3 years off from your actual age.
- It may be tempting to join a dating app by lying about your age, but there are several ways in which it might hinder your experience:
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Join the MeetMe community to find users near you. MeetMe offers a map functionality that allows its users to find people nearby. It is reserved for users 18+, but it does have a sizable teenage community anyway. We recommend teens to wait until they are 18 to create an account.
- Teenagers should consider hiding their location while using the app, only seeking out others that they trust.
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Turn chance encounters into romance with Happn. The Happn app uses uniquely specific GPS information to notify you when you have crossed paths with another Happn user. You can then decide whether or not you want to send that user a like. Happn has a burgeoning teenage community, but it does include more sexual and graphic content than similar dating apps, so parents may decide to monitor their child's Happn use more closely.
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Find the perfect partner with Coffee Meets Bagel. Coffee Meets Bagel is unique from other dating apps in that it only offers a select few users for you to "like" each day. These are your "bagels" and they are uniquely tailored to your profile and preferences. While the app is limited to users 17+, it offers one of the more robust reporting systems, granting teenagers and their parents peace of mind in case of contact with an undesirable user.