They got talking on an app called Yubo (Tinder for under 18s she says 
) and soon after they added each other on Snapchat. They've been talking for about a week and yesterday he asked if she'd like to go to the cinema with him after Christmas. She said yes, and that's when she told me about this lad. Apparently he is the same age (school year above, he's at college DD Y11), they like the same music, have the same sense of humour and she says he is very respectful, she doesn't think he's just after one thing. He does live in the far north of our city (we're far south) but he offered to meet DD at a cinema near us.
I was a little bit taken aback. I obviously gave the "40 year old perv" talk but she won't entertain the idea. She says that if he was a perv he wouldn't have offered to meet her in a public area 10 minutes away from her house. And also that all of his social media has been going years and seems genuine. She let me have a look at his social media and nothing about that raises any red flags, he seems to have a good consistent friend group etc and posts how you would expect a 16 year old lad to but I'm still not sure.
She wants to meet up sometime in between Christmas and New Year. They plan to meet at the shopping mall where the cinema is at about 5ish and then get something to eat afterwards. Then part ways as the lad has to get a train home. DD plans to walk home as we live just outside the town and it's a 10 minute walk.
I'm leaning towards letting her do it because at 16 she is more than capable of sneaking out and meeting him anyway if I say no. Whereas at least if I'm in the know I can check up on her through text/pick her up if she gets uneasy. I've given her a bit of a lecture "always stay where you are surrounded by people, don't leave your drink unattended, don't be afraid to say no" etc. Stuff that applies to meeting someone from online anyway, not just when it's teenagers. Am I taking the right approach here