The dangers of Grindr
By Ryan Quinn
The dangers of Grinder (Image: Unsplash)
Since 2019, more than 130 police reports of child abuse made in the UK have been linked to the online dating app Grindr.
Grindr is a location-based social networking and online dating app, created in 2009 by Joel Simkahi, a tech entrepreneur, in Los Angeles. The app is targeted towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, allowing them to meet other queer people near to their location. As of early 2025, Grindr has more than 14.5 million average monthly users across the globe.
Concerns have been raised from its creation however over just how safe the app is.
Those fears became reality in 2016, when Stephen Port, now 49, was convicted of the murder of four men whom he met on Grindr.
Between June 2014 and September 2015, Port lured the men to his flat, before he spiked, raped and murdered them. He is one of only 60 criminals in the UK to be serving a whole-life-tariff, meaning he will never be released from prison under any circumstances.
An investigation by The I Newspaper earlier this year found that police forces across the UK had received at least 13 reports of serious sexual offences allegedly perpetrated against children in the first 10 months of 2024, where Grindr was listed as the first point of contact between the suspect and the alleged victim.
Underage people using dating app (Image: Getty Images)
Furthermore, the investigation also found that more than 130 similar reports had been made to police between 2019 and mid-2025.
Paul Lawrinson, 50, from Warrington was jailed in 2024 for crimes of a serious sexual nature he committed against a 12-year-old boy, during which he provided the young boy with money and vapes in exchange for sex.
Lawrinson met the young boy on Grindr.
Heartbreakingly, those examples are just a drop in the ocean of the obscene behaviour which has become so normalised on the app.
During my investigation into the dangers of Grindr, I met with two gay men from Scotland. They both asked to remain anonymous.
‘Christopher’ is 20. He told me about his ongoing experience with his alleged stalker, who he originally met on the app.
He said: “He texts me all the time. If I block him, he makes a new account and finds me again. He sends the same pictures and even continues the conversation he was trying to have with me before I blocked him like nothing has happened.”
‘Christopher’ shared messages from the man he alleges is stalking him. They range from late night rants about the bible, to messages of a sexual nature, which contain unsolicited sexual images.
He has been deeply upset by it: “It’s gotten so bad that I am scared to speak to new people on the app in case it is him.
“I feel like a lot of people just do not care enough when it comes to things like [unpleasant and threatening messages]. I do not think it is something that you really think about, until it happens to you.”
Online stalking from dating apps (Image: Unsplash)
‘Logan’, now aged 20, highlighted a traumatic experience he alleges happened on Grindr in his youth, when he had an account while he was a minor.
He said: “I just started going on Grindr, I didn’t really know what it was. I know I shouldn’t have been on it but there was nothing to stop me, even though I was underage.
“There was an older man who messaged me, and he told me that he wished I was younger. He knew my real age. When he found out I was still at school, he asked me to send him photos of me in my school uniform. I was absolutely disgusted by it, and I blocked him.
“I hate how normalised things like age gaps are in the gay community. I don’t understand it; I think it is foul.”
A spokesperson for Grindr said: “There is no place in society for abuse of minors, and we wholly condemn anyone who commits crimes against underage individuals.
“Individuals can only download Grindr through the most age-restrictive settings on app stores intended for adult-only platforms.”
However, on the contrary there is a proven issue with underage children managing to access the app and sadly proven abuse of them too.
With members of the LGBTQ+ community already deemed vulnerable, the question remains; is Grindr truly a ‘safe space’ for the queer community? Or an exploitative, potentially life-ruining social experiment gone wrong?