While most commuters spend their train journeys to work glued to their phones, Northern, a train-operating company in the U.K., has axed access to dating apps and matchmaking sites through its onboard Wi-Fi service.
The move, which seeks to make browsing online safer for its youngest passengers, shakes things up for many of Britain’s 11.1 million dating app users and singles hoping to find love online. The new rule has been put into force as part of Northern’s “friendly WiFi” scheme, which intends to filter out potentially inappropriate digital content for its passengers.
Trevor Evers, a media relations manager at Northern, told Newsweek: “That scheme is delivered in partnership with the U.K. Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), which is something we think is very important to support.”
The “friendly WiFi” scheme was rolled out to safeguard vulnerable passengers, particularly children, who use the free service on board from online content that contains adult themes and can be …