Parents in Prosper have a warning about graphic content they say popped up while their daughter was using the social media app, Musical.ly.
When they aren't playing after school, there's a good chance the Dickerson siblings are scrolling through the popular music sharing app. That is, until this week.
"I was really sad because it was such a fun app and it just like got ruined," said 12-year-old Natalie Dickerson.
Musical.ly lets you lip sync to your favorite songs, then share videos of it.
Natalie Dickerson was looking at clips on Tuesday when she says a graphic video popped up on the screen from an unknown account.
"I was very shocked because I had never seen anything like that on Musical.ly before," she said.
"It was what appeared to be two teens having sex," said Natalie's mother, Angie Dickerson.
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Parents Angie and Kevin Dickerson were outraged because the app is rated for user 12 years old and up.
They also say they make sure their kids' accounts are private.
"I couldn't believe because we have all the privacy settings set on her phone. We have all the filters that Musical.ly allows that they give us to turn on we had them all in place," Angie Dickerson said.
In a statement, a Musical.ly spokesperson said:
“musical.ly prioritizes the safety of our users and strives to ensure that all musical.ly users can enjoy our application without abuse or threats from any other user. We take appropriate measures to expeditiously remove offensive or inappropriate content from the musical.ly app and have protocols in place to block a range of words that violate our terms of service including phrases deemed to be inappropriate. When a user flags content as inappropriate, it is removed from the platform within 15 minutes. Users can set their account to private to ensure only the friends they know can follow them. In addition, messages from friends are clearly identified from unknown senders so users can tell who is contacting them and can decide whether to engage. Our users can also block any other user from contacting them and they can report abusive users or communications to us through the application. In addition, we are implementing machine-learning technology to scan messages to block spam and inappropriate content. We also encourage parents to monitor their child's account, report inappropriate behavior, and have an open dialogue with children about responsible and safe behaviors for all online activity.”
The Dickersons say they're disappointed because they say they did everything they could to prevent something like this from happening, but it still did.
They say the app is now off-limits for their children and they're collecting signatures for an open letter they plan to send to Musical.ly.
"Beware that this can happen," said Natalie's father, Kevin Dickerson.
