Iranian matchmaking app removed by Google after allowing girls as young as 12 to register

Major platforms have removed the Iranian matchmaking app “Adam and Eve” after an investigation found that girls as young as 12 could register, according to announcements from Google, Meta and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Although the app has maintained that it is only available to adults over the age of 18, HRANA found in its investigative report, Child Marriage in the Digital Age, that children as young as 12 could register. The platform’s search system also allowed users to filter prospective spouses by age, including girls as young as 13.

The app has also publicly posted about the marriage of a 16-year-old bride to a 23-year-old man who met through the platform.

The Jerusalem Post also accessed the app’s website and reviewed profiles advertising girls as young as 15 for marriage. However, a closer look at one profile revealed the girl was in eighth grade, suggesting she was likely 13 or 14. The profile also displayed a green notice indicating parental approval.

Although Google and Meta confirmed this week that they would remove the app, Iranian digital rights organization Filterbaan had warned in July last year that Adam and Eve, alongside several Telegram channels, was facilitating child marriages.

An investigation published by Filterbaan at the time found that nearly 17% of the profiles posted on Adam and Eve in the six months before the report’s publication belonged to individuals under the age of 18.

A whistleblower within the app’s administration also told Filterbaan that, beginning in July 2023, the app’s director, Hossein Asghari, had directly ordered that minors’ profiles be published and presented as part of an “Islamic marriage and an Islamic-Iranian lifestyle.”

The youngest child known to have married through the app at the time of Filterbaan’s investigation was just 11 years old.

Under Article 1041 of Iran’s Civil Code, the minimum marriage age is 13 for girls and 15 for boys. However, marriage below those ages is permitted with a guardian’s consent and “consideration of the child’s best interests, as determined by the competent court.”

“The exploitation of children is a horrific crime, and we work aggressively to fight it on and off our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson told HRANA. “We investigated the information provided by HRANA and identified external links to underage marriage services. We have removed these entities from Meta platforms.”

Google removed the app for 'violating policies'

Google separately told the organization that “the app was removed from Google Play on October 9 for violating our policies.”

Despite global efforts to combat child marriage, the practice remains widespread. UNICEF’s child marriage data portal reports that one in five young women worldwide married before their 18th birthday. Meanwhile, Iran’s Statistical Center recorded approximately 25,900 marriages involving girls under the age of 15 in 2022.

Licensed by the Iranian regime, Adam and Eve is part of a broader expansion of matchmaking services operating with government authorization. HRANA reported that Iran had only one licensed matchmaking platform in 2020, but that number had risen to more than 200 by early 2025.

Efforts to raise Iran’s minimum marriage age gained momentum throughout the 2010s, with proposals to set the minimum age at 16 for girls and 18 for boys and require court permission for marriages involving children over 13. However, government policy shifted in 2021, following Ebrahim Raisi’s appointment as president, toward enabling and encouraging child marriage.

The proposed Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill was subsequently removed from the government’s agenda, despite efforts by the then-vice president for Women and Family Affairs to secure its approval by the executive branch of the Islamic Republic.