MANILA, Philippines – Tinder will be setting a higher minimum age for users of the app beginning next week, the company announced.

TechCrunch reported Wednesday, June 8 (June 9 in Manila) that users must now be at least 18 years old to use the application, up from the original 13 years old it required when it originally launched in 2012.

Previously, those who were between 13 and 17 could match with other people within the pool, though it seems that whole pool is being phased out in the coming week.

“On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences. Consistent with this responsibility, we have decided to discontinue service for under-18 users. We believe this is the best policy moving forward. This change will take effect next week,” said Tinder vice president of communications Rosette Pambakian in a statement.

“We’ve been reviewing this policy since early this year and believe it’s the right thing to do,” she added.

Tinder said the change would affect less than 3% of its user base. – Rappler.com