Boy, 13, sexually exploited by 21 men he met after being allowed to sign up for dating apps

A SCHOOLBOY was sexually exploited by 21 men he met online after signing up for a dating app at 13.

He was abused by the men - including two teachers - after he made a Grindr account by bypassing the app's age controls.

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claims cops have investigated more than 30 incidents of child rape since 2015 where victims dodged age checks - with 60 further cases of child sex offences.

The youngest child abused was just eight years old.

It comes after social media companies were slammed for encouraging children to self-harm by displaying images glorifying suicide.

A 16-year-old girl in Nottingham was allegedly manipulated into sending racy pics to an adult man on a dating service, while an eight year old was tricked into having a "sexual conversation" with an adult paedophile.

Tinder - where a reporter was able to set up a profile saying she was 17 - claims it suspends underage accounts on the spot.

Grindr requires users to confirm they are over 18 - but no checks are made.

The National Crime Agency estimates that 80,000 people pose a threat to kids online.

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A Grindr spokesman said: "Any account of sexual abuse or other illegal behaviour is troubling to us as well as a clear violation of our terms of service.

"Our team is constantly working to improve our digital and human screening tools to prevent and remove improper underage use of our app."

A Tinder spokesman added: "We utilise a network of industry-leading moderation and review tools and spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove minors and other inappropriate behaviour from our app. We don’t want minors on Tinder."

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