The month was December.

It was cold.

A classic winter night.

Ewan Fulton, aged 18, was a user of Yubo – an app that he described as ‘tinder for teenagers’.

Fulton had connected with a 15-year-old girl. Her name was Mhari O’Neill.

They made plans to meet on a Friday night in Edinburgh, and they stayed in constant contact on the app beforehand.

When they had both arrived, Fulton bought a litre of vodka, and they made their way up Calton Hill. He allowed Mhari to drink so much vodka that she was unable to walk or talk, and he engaged in sexual activity with the minor during this time.

Later that night, he decided that he was ready to go home. He propped Mhari up against a bench, very aware of the fact that she needed desperate help.

Despite knowing that, he left her to freeze to death on that cold December night.

This is only one example of child dating apps connecting a young person with someone who would play a part in taking their life, but there are many more stories out there.

Recently, I watched a video about these disturbing apps and was surprised that there seemed to be very few people discussing them.

Like a lot of things in the past, it seems as though this is something that everyone knows about, but no one wants to talk about.

When I refer to these apps as ‘child dating apps’, it’s important to note that the developers of said apps claim that these are designed to make friends, and not to find relationships.

The description for Yubo reads:

“We’re a social platform where you can find new friends through live streaming and authentic interactions.”

Despite the claim that they are only to make friends, almost everyone who knows of these apps’ existence knows that at least 70% of the users are there to date or find sexual interaction.

Why do I know this? Because I’ve used the app myself.

I’m 19 years old, and myself and a lot of my friends used the app when we were minors. Because of this, I can give some personal insight into the app before we dive into other incidents.

During my time on the app, I had people ask me for sexual acts, illegal pictures, and used clothes. I also had many interactions with people whose profile stated that they were around my age at the time, 15, but who later admitted to be in their 20s. While swiping through profiles, I also saw people advertising illegal content of themselves, and sexual meets.

You’re probably asking – surely the creators of the app have taken steps to prevent these things from happening?

According to them, they have.

A few years ago, a spokesperson for Yubo told The Daily Mail:

“The app is being heavily monitored and the app is aimed at children aged 13 years and over. We remove young people both female and male who may be appearing partially naked or in their underwear, which goes way beyond other major apps such as Instagram. We provide safety advice pop-ups and real-time notifications if someone breaks our community guidelines so that they understand what they did wrong. Again, this is a unique approach and goes much further than any other social media app available.”

It seems as though they take the moral high ground over having more safety measures than other social media apps. I, personally, don’t think this is something you should flex about as it should be a necessity if an app like this is going to exist.

They prevent older people from using the app by making users take a face-scan that will be used to verify their age, but I’ve seen people say that this security method is flimsy, so I wanted to try it for myself.

I created an account on Yubo and claimed to be 14 years old.

Shortly after the account was created, I got the face scan pop-up.

It took mere seconds to verify, and I passed without a problem.

This indicates that if a predator was trying to access the app, they would now be able to swipe for hours on end without a single bit of security standing in their way.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, how about some personal accounts from people who were victims of the disturbing individuals that call Yubo their home…

In May 2022, a 17-year-old Reddit user came to the site, desperate for help and advice on what to do in their situation.

They had downloaded Yubo and had started speaking to a girl who we will call Alice.

OP exchanged social media accounts with Alice, and soon enough, Alice had asked OP for some nude photographs.

OP sent the photos.

A short while after, OP received a text on WhatsApp. They opened the message and clicked on the photo that was attached.

To their horror, it was a collage of the nude photos that OP had sent to Alice, with the text message reading:

“If you don’t send me money, I will send this to all of your friends and family, and any other site where people can see.”

OP freaked out and sent a $150 iTunes gift card to the blackmailer. As is always the case, this would not stop them from continuing their threats.

The blackmailer replied:

“If you don’t send more, I’ll expose the photos.”

At this point, OP had enough and blocked the number. Three other accounts attempted to contact OP with threats, but OP did the right thing and ignored them.

In another case, a 15-year-old girl from Scotland was groomed by a predator called Jordan Croft.

Croft, who is 26 years old, created an account on Yubo claiming to be 16 years of age.

He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2022 after it was discovered he had abused 26 young girls using the app.

His 15-year-old victim mentioned before spoke to The Daily Record about how the predator had gotten her trust. She said:

“It took me five minutes to make an account. I thought it was a boy my age I was speaking to. We were chatting and got on surprisingly well. He asked me to send pictures of myself. It was after I sent the first couple that he revealed that he was actually a lot older and said he had a degree in cyber security. He made himself seem untouchable, like it didn’t matter what I did, no one would find him. He wanted me to send him exactly what he’d ask me to send. I had to keep talking to him. I wasn’t allowed to go to sleep or use the toilet without asking. He said If I didn’t keep doing what he requested then my pictures would be sent to my Facebook family and friends. He had managed to find my profile and sent me a picture of it. I realised I was in trouble. I was petrified. It’s something you just don’t want your mum and dad, or anyone, to find out about.”

In the end, the brave victim made a report and played a part in taking down the serial offender when she faced him in court.

By the end of the case, it was discovered that he had used 20 different usernames on four different social media platforms, including Yubo, to contact at least 5,000 potential victims.

These are only two examples of the abuse that has occurred during the wait for stricter online safety laws.

Back in 2017, a children’s charity called for tougher online laws and since then, they claim that over 34,000 cases of online grooming have been reported to the police. I would guess that there are so many more cases that have occurred but haven’t been reported to the police, as in my generation, it seems as though a lot of us have had an encounter with an online predator when we were younger, but the victim was too scared to report it out of fear of nothing being done about it.

A lot of popular messaging apps lure users in with the promise of encrypted messages, meaning that only the sender and receiver can view what is sent.

If new laws were to go ahead, it would likely mean that the companies and police would be able to view users’ messages if there was a child safety concern.

I completely understand the concerns surrounding this as it does bring up a privacy issue that has to be thought about, but surely, these discussions need to happen sooner rather than later so that no more children are put in harm’s way?

Call these apps whatever you want – but make sure to include the word ‘dangerous’ in your description.

While you’re swiping, it’s common to see the phrase ‘don’t send’, as being asked for nudes is so common that you have to preface your bio by saying that you don’t send any.

These apps clearly pose a huge safety risk to minors, and sadly, far too many have been victims of the disturbing individuals that call these platforms home.

If you’re a parent, I urge you to ensure that your children stay far away from these apps as they could easily become the next victim of a predator.

While on the surface, Yubo may claim to keep them safe, we’ve proven that their safety features are shockingly bad. 

If you’re a minor, please do yourself a favour and don’t even think of creating an account on these apps.

While you may make some friends, the chances of you coming into contact with someone who could ruin your life is too high to take the risk.

Finally, to the victims of predators on these apps; we hear you, and you will not suffer in silence…