Yubo Safety Guide for Parents
An urgent parent's guide to Yubo — a high-risk friend-making and livestreaming app popular with teenagers that has significant concerns around stranger contact and location.
Official age
13+
We recommend
18+
Developer
Yubo SAS
Risks
4
Overview
Yubo is a social networking app specifically designed for making friends through swiping profiles and joining live streams. Often described as 'Tinder for teens', it allows users to swipe through profiles of other users and join or host live video streams. Despite age verification measures introduced following regulatory pressure, Yubo has been widely criticised by child safety organisations for facilitating contact between adults and children, including in live streaming environments. The platform is rated 17+ on the App Store but the actual age minimum is 13.
How children use it
Teenagers use Yubo to meet new people outside their existing social circles by swiping on profiles and joining live streams. The app uses a similar interface to Snapchat and combines elements of Tinder (swiping), TikTok (live streaming), and standard messaging. Children can join live streams hosted by strangers and interact via on-screen comments, and can be added to group chats by people they have matched with.
Main risks
Recommended privacy settings
Age Verification
Location: Account settings → Verification
Set to: Review — verification is limited and not reliable for preventing adult contact
Yubo introduced age verification in response to regulatory pressure, but the system has been found to be bypassable. Do not rely on Yubo's age verification as a meaningful safeguard.
Location Sharing
Location: Profile settings → Location
Set to: Off
Yubo can display approximate location information to matched users. This should be disabled immediately.
Parent actions
Check whether Yubo is installed on your child's device — it may be listed under its previous name 'Yellow'
Time: 5 minutes
If Yubo is installed, have a calm conversation about what your child uses it for and who they have been in contact with
Time: 20 minutes
Consider removing the app entirely — the combination of stranger swiping, live streaming, and location sharing creates significant risk that is difficult to mitigate with settings alone
Time: 5 minutes