Dad warns of message feature in popular music app

A concerned dad in Illinois is using social media to alert parents everywhere about a feature hidden in an app that's pretty popular with children.

Brad Summer's 7-year-old daughter loves an app called Musical.ly, which he says she uses to create goofy lip dub duets with her cousins.

But apparently, the app has a messaging component and his family found out the hard way when his young daughter started getting some messages from strangers.

So he took to Facebook to share his situation and warn others of this hidden danger.

Brad said the stranger started off by asking "How are you?" and "How old are you?" But then started asking for photos and his daughter even sent a few, assuming this was someone her age.

That's when the individual sending the messages repeatedly started asking the young girl for pictures with no shirt on and nude photos, saying it would be a secret between them.

Summer said he's proud that his little girl became wise to what was happening and alerted him.

He added that he messaged back the stranger, saying he's a police officer and that they have documented his IP address and location -- and that's exactly what they did.

He wanted people to know that his little girl does not have her own phone. She uses one of her parents' when they are around and is closely monitored.

Musical.ly is not a social networking site and yet she was preyed upon, Summer said.

His message is for everyone to work together to give children their safety back. He wrote: "Doing nothing, accomplishes nothing. Doing something, at a minimum gives us hope."