Contents:
- UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
- THE DIGAL SEX LIV OF YOUNG GAY TEENAGERS
UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
German Chavez was 14 years old when he first started g a gay datg app lled Grdr to fd adult men to pay him for need to help his troubled sgle mother pay the bills, he said, and had no trouble fdg men to purchase him on the popular lotn-based mobile 25 and years away om the sex tra, Chavez is warng other mors to stay away om Grdr, one of the most popular apps the untry for gay and bisexual men.
The pany touts s mobile platform as “The World’s Largt Social Networkg App for Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer People” and says s ers have to be 18 years old and the app is teemg wh unrage gay, bisexual and qutng boys, acrdg to rearchers, child exploatn specialists and ers like Chavez who say they n easily lie about their age to ga accs to the LGBTQ teens are seekg nnectn a world that provis few safe spac, rearchers say. More than half of sexually active gay and bisexual boys between the ag of 14 and 17 fd sexual partners on Grdr and other siar apps, acrdg to a 2018. the Journal of the Amerin Amy of Child and Adolcent Psychiatry timatg that about one quarter of all gay and bisexual adolcent mal are g Grdr and siar apps — likely hundreds of thoands of youth natnwi.
He’s seen gay teens end up at an emergency room Boston — where he worked until last year — crisis after beg sexually exploed by men they met on Grdr yet too ashamed to seek help om other adults. He says he has received some phback om members of the gay muny about his. There’s a history of anti-gay propaganda patg gay men as pedophil, he said, when there is no rearch to show they are more likely to be predators than others.
THE DIGAL SEX LIV OF YOUNG GAY TEENAGERS
But Turban says homophobia is also to blame for why LGBTQ youth have so few outlets to fd timacy and also why their victimizatn is so seldom talked about. He says clicians and fay members should do more to talk to gay youth about the health and safety risks of datg apps.
“The wild wt of the gay world”Grdr was created 2009 by Israeli-born, Tufts Universy graduate Joel Simkhai. Bradley Tyrrell, 35, of Newton says the app is a “double-edged sword” — a place to meet gay men but also wh many unknowns.
“It’s the wild wt of the gay world. Kathryn Mapagal, a rearch profsor at Northwtern Universy, says she first asked teens about hook-up apps 2016 when she was preparg a sex tn program for gay and bisexual boys. Her team nducted more surveys to talk about why they get on the apps — often gay and qutng teens lookg for muny a world that don’t wele them.