Is this how relationships start these days?

[WatchtoomuchTV]

DD is (just) 18, intelligent, sensible, but not very streetwise.
A boy (says he's 17) from a village about 40 minutes' drive away has seen DD's photo on her friend's snapchat.
DD's friend doesn't know this boy but happily accepts all followers. Nobody knows him.
DD has told me (nervously) that she has been talking with this boy for about 2 weeks and they have a date planned. She drives; he doesn't. She'll be driving to a town near to where he lives and they'll be spending the day at the shopping centre there.
DH is worried, and now I am, about how a boy who was scrolling through snapchat could just pick my DD out and now be planning a date with her.
He sounds really decent - and I've watched too much "Murder on CCTV" - but now my DH has got me worried.
YABU - I need to relax; this is how young people meet these days.
YANBU - We need to monitor this carefully.

Shes the female

Thats good.

He is the CHILD.

Christ some of you on here are absolutely wild

My sister is 20 and she met her boyfriend on Snapchat and he is lovely, granted a couple years older and this boy drives but 17 is very young, probably not planning on hurting your DD, and your daughter is 18 so she can probably make that decision herself, I moved to the U.K. from Australia at 18, got a career and got married, I'm sure my parents were worried if get murdered, just trust your daughters instincts, if she decides to go it's her choice, maybe ask her to send her location to you if she's nervous

They could do a video call on WhatsApp without the clash of android versus apple. I would recommend she did this before meeting him in person. Like other posters say, he could be anyone.

It's how Harry met Meghan 😁

It’s actually how I met my husband, 7 years ago. He saw my Snapchat story on a friends phone and must have liked what he saw 😂 I was older than your daughter (21) and so didn’t really tell my mum the ins and outs, can’t worry about what you don’t know about!
It isn’t the way of meeting that would concern me at all, I would be making sure she was being sensible tho as I would with any date at all.
I am sure she’ll be absolutely fine and will have a lovely time.

He is the CHILD

This is just being obtuse.

Not really, in this scenario there is a child meeting with an adult who they’ve met online.

Its weird to suggest the child goes outside of an area they’re comfortable to meet to appease the adults mum

No, there are two people in the latter part of their teens, close in age, meeting up and you're getting hung up on an arbitrary cut-off point.
I'm just not sure why.

Because it’s insane to suggest the meeting point be at a safer location for the adult over the child in this scenario.

Give over @CleoandRalf
You're coming over a bit insane. Or MRA.

Oooh here we go, I won’t give over, it’s insane to expect a child to put themselves at a higher risk to appease the mum of an adult.

This "child" could have joined the UK army or got married in Scotland just shy of two years ago so I'm sure he'll cope.

He could be 18 in a week for all you know, op says her dd only just turned 18 so going on about him being a child is utterly ridiculous

I've told her that the second he attempts to get her on her own she is to make her excuses

You did say she was 18, didn't you? You shouldn't be telling her what to do, although phrasing it as a suggestion for what to do if she feels uncomfortable with the situation would have been reasonable.

The child is still more likely to be able to over power and rape the adult on the basis of averages given were talking about an age difference of months and a male and a female. They're likely in the same school year. It's not like once you're 18 on yr13 (or whatever the equiv is) you're ushered into a side room so you can't talk to the little kids in your class