A popular teen social media app named Yubo has come under fire after an investigation found it to be a cesspool of sexual harassment, racism and other sordid activities.
The app, which is available in both the US and the UK, has been dubbed in a Times investigation “Tinder for Teens.” It invites teens as young as 13 to connect and interact with about 100 other users.
“What I have heard about this site is sickening,” Chris Philp, Britain’s minister for tech and the digital economy, told the Times of the Paris-based app, which boasts 3.6 million users in the UK alone.
The app sparked outrage among teachers in the UK, who sent parents a letter cautioning “due to the nature of this app, your child may come across content that is not appropriate to them.”
A Times reporter spent 10 days posing as a 15-year-old on Yubo, which she claimed didn’t require an age verification. The app uses “age gates” to differentiate between minors and adults.
During her investigation, the incognito newshound claimed that users would frequently proposition her and ask for nude pics. Meanwhile, a 16-year-old black male was reportedly told by a potential user that they’d let him “pick my cotton any day,” according to the Times.
Drug use — a banned topic on the site — also came up during in the online discussions, which frequently took place while the teens were doing their homework or even finishing school, per the Times. The undercover reporter recounted overhearing on a livestream chat one man telling a 15-year-old girl about acid and ketamine and asking if she’d “do a line off my [erection]?”
And unfortunately, the damage the app caused wasn’t just verbal, as in many cases, adults join the site. Just last week, a UK man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl that he’d reportedly met hours earlier on Yubo.
Ian Critchley, who oversees child protection for the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, accused Yubo of boasting lax digital security standards that allow users to “commit some of the most abhorrent acts.”
“These platforms are multimillion-pound companies,” he said, fuming. “They take large profits and they have the moral and legal responsibility to make sure the communities they have created are safe communities. There is much more they can do.”
In a statement to The Post after the original article was published, a Yubo spokesperson wrote that “We believe it’s important to clarify that Yubo is a social media platform designed to help Gen Z make new friends. . . without the pressure of likes or follows.”
The spokesperson emphasized that the company is improving their safety measures, including creating a “safety advisory board made up of international industry experts who provide invaluable advice and inform our proactive approach to safety.”
Additionally, according to the spokesperson, the company has implemented features designed to improve safety. These include AI filters for chats to intervene when content is flagged, profile screening for age verification, a “muted words” feature, a mode which filters sexually inappropriate messages and pop-up warnings designed to remind users not to send personal information and to educate users on community guidelines. They’re also working on new technology for better age-verification as well as speech-to-text technology that can help detect inappropriate statements made in live streams.
Regarding the Times’ investigation, “we were saddened to learn of the journalist’s experience and the way she and others were impacted during their time on our platform,” the spokesperson told The Post. “We’re taking the investigation extremely seriously and have instigated an immediate review of the safety features and how they may have failed. . . We encourage anyone who has questions about safety on our platform to visit Yubo’s online Safety Center to learn more. They will receive a dedicated contact form to report any problems. The Yubo team prioritizes these reports and we always respond within 24 hours.”
Editor’s Note: The Post has updated this article to clarify that Yubo is a social media app.