Chinese gay dating app Blued suspends its registration for new users following report some minor users contracted HIV on dates being set up through the app.
On Sunday, the company said it would launch a "comprehensive content audit and regulation," and it would crack down text, pictures, and group chats involving minors. Blued, with over 40 million registered users, also vowed to crack down underage users posing as adults, the South China Morning Post reported.
The company said in a statement on its Weibo account that it had always forbidden juveniles logging on to and using the app. Blued also said it is using artificial intelligence to remove pornographic content since last year, and the company promised to support HIV/AIDS prevention work further.
According to the report of prominent magazine Caixin Weekly, some minors were heavy users of Blued, with some even hosting a live-streaming. Citing academic research, the financial magazine said many gay teenager users had unprotected sex being set-up via the app and had contracted HIV, the virus causing AIDS.
Peng Xiaohui, from the China Sexology Association, said that he's worried and had been warning the founder of Blued to make an action and effort to halt minors from using the app. The Beijing-based company did not immediately respond regarding the issue.
"The public should respect the lawful rights and interests of the gay community," Peng said, adding Blued should take responsibility in protecting minors, as well as abiding by the law.
In China, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS had already reached 820,756 by the end of June, which increased by 14 percent year on year, as per the report of state news agency Xinhua back in September.
In the second quarter, 93 percent of new cases of HIV/AIDS were the result of sexual transmission. The report of Caixin noted that the majority of children, under the age of 14, had contracted the diseases through transmission from their mother, while some support workers in gay communities said there's a small but growing incidence of male-to-male sex transmission.
Blued was launch in 2010 which is backed by state-run media Beijing News. It's a brainchild of a former policeman who decided to quit his job and play the role of Cupid to millions of gay men in China. Meanwhile, Grindr, which also a Los Angeles-based gay dating app that is well-known globally, is owned by a Chinese company as well.
