Six months ago, I was waiting for a date in London when I had a text from the expected man, apologising in advance for wearing a tracksuit. He’d “cycled straight from school”, he said.
“Oh God,” I thought, leaping up and locking my door, wondering if I was about to be arrested. We’d met on the dating app Feeld and I couldn’t remember how old he was. Legally to be on the site he had to be 18, I told myself, maybe even 21 given the filthier side of Feeld. When you’re dating casually, age feels less important than it does when you’re looking for something ‘serious’ so I hadn’t really checked. He couldn’t be school-age, surely, although I suddenly felt like Humbert Humbert.
