Social Discovery & Friend-Making Apps
Safety guidance on apps designed to help young people meet new people online, and why they carry elevated risks.
Social Discovery is apps designed to help users meet and chat with new people online, often strangers matched by interests, age or location.
Official age
13+
We recommend
18+
Developer
Various
Risks
4
Features to know about
Overview
Social discovery apps are designed to connect users with strangers who share interests. Apps like Wizz and similar platforms are popular with teenagers, and Yubo was too until it became an 18+ only app in late 2025, but they carry significant risks because they are specifically designed to facilitate contact between people who don't know each other.
How children use it
Teenagers use social discovery apps to find new friends, join interest groups, or take part in live video lounges, often by swiping through profiles or joining themed rooms similar to a dating app. The appeal is connecting with people outside their existing school or family circle, especially for young people who feel isolated, are exploring identity, or want a fresh start from local peer drama. Many move conversations off the app within minutes — to Snapchat, Discord, or Instagram — which is precisely the pattern groomers use to escape platform moderation. Some apps reward 'levelling up' or unlocking features by adding more friends, which encourages broad, low-quality connection over careful curation. On Wizz, users can send private messages to people they meet in the app; a first message arrives in a separate Requests tab until the recipient accepts it. Wizz users can buy WiCoins and Wizz Gold or Infinity plans, and Yubo users can buy Yubucks and Power or Elite packs, inside the apps. Yubo has a Live feature where users broadcast video of themselves in real time while others join, watch and chat.
Main risks
Recommended privacy settings
Location sharing
Location: App settings > Privacy
Set to: Off
These apps often request location data. Always disable location sharing.
Profile visibility
Location: App settings > Profile
Set to: Minimum information
Share as little personal information as possible on profiles.
Parent actions
Discuss why friend-making apps carry elevated risks
Time: 10 minutes
Check if these apps are installed on your child's device
Time: 5 minutes
Explain that age verification on these platforms is unreliable
Time: 5 minutes
Related app guides
If you need to report this
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myths & facts
Myth: These apps have age verification, so my child won't end up talking to adults.
Fact: Age checks across this category range from a self-reported birthdate to a selfie scan, and none are foolproof — a determined adult can get past them, and a curious child under the minimum age can too. Treat any age gate here as a speed bump, not a guarantee about who is really on the other side of a chat.
Myth: These are just social apps, the same as the ones my child already uses.
Fact: The difference is the core design: these apps exist specifically to connect people who don't already know each other, using swiping, 'nearby' matching, or open live rooms. That is a fundamentally different risk profile from a platform your child mainly uses to talk to school friends, even if the app looks similar on screen.
Myth: If nothing bad has happened yet, the app must be fine for my child.
Fact: No incident so far doesn't mean the app is safe by design — it may just mean nothing has surfaced yet, or your child hasn't told you. Because the whole point of this category is meeting strangers, our guidance is to weigh the app's purpose, not to wait and see what happens.
Age by age
- 8-10
Every app in this category sits well above this age and the entire premise — meeting people neither of you know — isn't appropriate at this stage. If your child wants to make new friends online, look at moderated, interest-based spaces designed for children instead.
- 11-13
Most social discovery apps set 13 as their minimum, which is exactly where their appeal is strongest: new friends, a fresh start, less parental oversight. If you find one installed, treat it as an opening for a calm conversation about why it's there, not just something to delete.
- 14-16
Meeting the minimum age doesn't mean the core risk has gone away — pairing your child with strangers is still the app's actual function. If your teen wants to use a specific one, look at it together first: what strangers can see on a profile, and what they can message, before any account exists.
- 17-plus
At this age it's more about judgement than permission, so focus on the specific tells: someone pushing to move the conversation to another app, asking for photos, or steering towards meeting up. Agree together what a safe first meeting would look like as a fallback, even while encouraging real caution.
Frequently Asked Questions
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