Chinese gay dating app, Blued, has stopped registration for new users for a week after underage users contracted HIV from dates set up through the app, according to reporting by Caixin Global.
In September, China reported a 14 percent increase in the number of HIV cases in the country, with 40,000 new cases being reported by the second quarter of the year.
Blued, the largest networking app for the LGBTQ community, has been cracking down on underage users and is using artificial intelligence to rid the platform of pornography.
“Blued always forbids juveniles from logging on and using the app,” Blued said in a statement on its Weibo account.
According to Caixin, Blued’s lack of age verification methods made it easy for underage users to create profiles on the app.
Blued currently has 40 million users worldwide, and is also the owner of another popular gay dating app, Grindr.
