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After watching US reality show To Catch A Predator, Blake*, a tinder user himself who had seen underage girls come up on the dating app, came up with an idea.
Called ‘The Tinder Experiment’, the 26-year-old from Melbourne enlisted friends to help to him trap and expose paedophile’s online.
“I saw a lot of unusual things come up on my own Tinder account, including underage girls, and I wanted to run an experiment to see how other guys were reacting to such things,” he told News Corp.
Blake’s friend Imogen*, 21, became involved, posing on the dating app as a 15-year-old, and the reactions she received were horrifying.
“Once the profile went up and we saw how they were reacting, we decided to go that step further and see how they acted in person,” added Blake.
“From that point it really became about raising awareness and showing the public what was happening in their community.”
The risky experiment, saw Imogen meet up with the older men and posting the videos online.
The videos quickly went viral and naturally caught the attention of police, concerned over the danger he and his friends were putting themselves in
“They said ‘You don’t know what’s going to happen, someone could pull a knife or a gun – and it’s kind of interfering with the working we’re doing’,”
Blake told AAP.
However the experiment has gone on to see two men charged and convicted and the videos used as evidence in court, reports Fairfax.
“The Tinder Experiment did what police were already doing – just on a different platform,” Detective Senior Constable Tas Gagatsakis said.
*Blake and Imogen’s names have been changed to protect their identities
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