Similar to Tinder, Bumble is a mobile dating app. However, on the Bumble app women must be the first to make contact.

Parent & educator training video‍

What is the Bumble app?

• Bumble is a mobile dating app where women must be the first to make contact
• Women have 24 hours to make contact and men have 24 hours to respond
• If both users are the same gender, either user has 24 hours to make contact and the other user has to respond within 24 hours or the connection expires
• Users are required to sign up with their Facebook account to verify their age (but someone can lie about their age on their Facebook account)
• Next, users create a bio that includes pictures, employer, school, and graduation year
• Dating preferences can be set like age, distance from location, and what gender you're looking for
• Users swipe right to make a connection or swipe left to pass
• If a user accidentally swipes left on someone, they can shake their phone and reevaluate the profile
• Bumble now offers three modes to find matches - Date (dating), BFF (friends) and BIZZ (business)
• Bumble is free but offers Boost. For a monthly fee, Boost will let users re-match with connections that have expired

Why should parents care?

• Tweens and teens have been known to lie about their age and create fake accounts on apps like Bumble
• The Bumble app makes it easy for predators to target victims
• Connections expire every 24 hours which encourages users to check the app daily
• Bumble markets itself as a place for dating, friend-finding, and career building, so the motives of the app can be confusing for younger teens
• Cyberbullying, inappropriate language, and harassment are prevalent in private messages sent on the app

Bumble app in the news

We have not seen evidence that this somehow makes online dating safe for minors or prevents adults from creating fake Facebook accounts to meet minors [on Bumble]. –SaferKid

What can parents do?

• If your teen has the Bumble app, have them delete it and discuss the dangers of apps like Bumble and Tinder
• Check out our Parent App Guide page on SmartSocial.com and encourage your student to use apps in our Green Zone
• Teach your children to never meet strangers in-person that they’ve met online
• Talk to your teen about how easy it is for predators to pretend to be someone else on Bumble
• Ensure that your children know how to report accounts and posts on the social media networks they use
• Remember that no monitoring app will ever be better at protecting your family than having an open and healthy dialog