Canada's child safety watchdog warns parents about Wizz, a Tinder-like app for teens
Wizz
Canada’s watchdog for child exploitation issued a warning to parents Tuesday about Wizz, a Tinder-like app for teens, after it reappeared in Apple’s app store.
Cybertip.ca, the tip line run by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, known as C3P, published a release telling parents that they should consider removing Wizz from their children’s phones.
The organization, which is designated by Canada’s government to collect information about allegations of child sexual exploitation, said that it had received over 180 reports about Wizz since 2021 and that reports spiked tenfold in 2023 from the previous year.
“Of these reports, 91% concerned sextortion, with males victimized in 93% of cases when gender was known. The majority of victims reported to Cybertip.ca were between 15 — 17 years old,” the release said.
In response to the warning, a Wizz representative said in a statement, “We know we have a higher standard of duty and care for our users, given that Wizz is creating online communities for a teenage audience. That is why we built Wizz from the ground up to be safe; and every day we seek to make it safer.”
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