The use of a photo of an underage girl in an advert on a popular dating site was due to a technical error, a spokesperson for the site has said.
As reported, Icelandic dating site Einkamál came under criticism again due to an ad on their website. The advert featured a photo of a very young-looking girl. Further research found that the picture was taken from a bank of stock photos, and hers was labeled “Teenage girl holding a book”.
A spokesperson for Einkamál said that they had not received any complaints about the ad, but they nonetheless removed it from their site. DV now reports that the site has offered an explanation for why a photo of an underaged girl was used in an advert for a dating site that forbids anyone under 18 from joining.
In a statement to the press, they say that the photo was originally meant to be a “placeholder” for another image to be used later, but by some mistake, the photo was never replaced. Whichever model they used, they intended to show “a regular person in a normal setting,” and did not intend to use a model considered sexually appealing.
This is not the first time the site drew criticism. In 2011, it was revealed that classified ads for prostitution were being posted there. The site responded by removing the offending ads and providing assurances that such ads violate their terms of service.
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