The creative applications of Tinder and Grindr are endless - so let's not demonise them too soon

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He told us how he had recently met up with a chap on Grindr who after eagerly tearing open the condom wrapper with his teeth, inadvertently dissipated any sexual tension there had been by looking down at my friend, smiling wryly, and asking, “So, shall I be mother?” Grindr has become, for many of us, part of our conversation, a part of our daily lives. As Steve Carter said so poetically in Get Real, “Find someone to do it with, find somewhere to do it, and do it.” Okay, perhaps it’s not quite that simple - and odds are that if you’re a teenager meeting men in public bathrooms in Basingstoke, it’s not usually going to turn out to be the head boy in the other cubicle. According to the Independent, “there were 412 reports of crime in England and Wales mentioning Grindr or Tinder in 2015, a far cry from the 55 reports filed in 2013.” As a teenager using online dating platforms, you learn the ground rules pretty quickly - always be suspicious of faceless profiles, never invite someone round to your house, and of course if someone claims to be David Beckham, odds are he isn’t. Tinder’s response on BBC’s Newsbeat was apt: “People with bad intentions exist in coffee shops, bookstores, on social media and social apps.” Living in a jam-packed city like London, many people enjoy a pretty athletic sex life as well as a demanding career.