A Melbourne woman feels horrified and sick after a predator posed as pop star Justin Bieber on a music app and asked her eight-year-old daughter to send nude photos.
Alicia said she was apprehensive about allowing her daughter Charlie to download the popular app Musical.ly on her iPad, which she uses for games and school work.
Musical.ly is a popular iPad and iPhone social media application that allows users to create music videos and share them with friends.
On Saturday, Alicia finally agreed to her allow her daughter to download the app and set up a private account.
Alicia's worst fears were realised 48 hours later.
"It was her first venture into a social media account and it's gone horrifically wrong," she said.
Alicia, from Melbourne's western suburbs, said she was fixing Charlie's hair on Monday night when a series of sinister notifications popped up on the iPad.
They were sent from "the real Justin Bieber", asking Charlie for naked photos.
"Who wants to win a 5 minute video call with me?" the first message read.
"All you need to do is send me a photo of you naked, or of your vagina," read the next.
This was followed by: "Lots of girls send me these pics all the time I will never tell anyone."
Finally, the user said "message me right now if you want to do it".
Alicia said she immediately felt sick.
"The third message concerned me even more," she said. "It showed how much of a professional predator he was.
"It was that persuasive 'you're doing the right thing', sickly chat.
"I grabbed the iPad and went to the police station. It was a lovely lady officer, and she was horrified as well, but they were limited in what they could do.
"When you went into the profile, there was no way you could track them down. They said he could be in Russia, or Thailand, or America, anywhere."
The police told her they would do what they could, and informed other police officers about it.
Alicia blocked the user, reported him to Musical.ly and sent the app creators an email. She also told parents at Charlie's school about the messages.
Children's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said parents needed to engage in their children's online lives and teach them about "stranger danger" online.
"Unfortunately we have repeatedly seen that where children go, predators seeking to exploit those children will follow," she said.
Ms Grant said parents concerned about a certain user should collect evidence, including screenshots and their username details, and report them to police.
Website esafety.gov.au also educates parents on technology tools to help protect their children online.
Multiple convicted paedophiles have posed as pop star Justin Bieber in an attempt to manipulate their young victims.
Police charged a Brisbane man with 900 child sex offences earlier this month after he posed as the singer online.
In 2013, a British man was jailed after also pretending to be Bieber to convince young girls to expose themselves.
Queensland Police Detective Inspector Jon Rouse said a "serious rethink" about child online safety was needed after so many children believed they were communicating with the celebrity.
Alicia said it was a brutal warning to parents about how easily children could fall prey to online predators.
"This was within 36 to 48 hours [of installing the app] – such a short time," she said.
"For her to only have seven friends, and for him to be able to find her on such a private account, it worries me sick.
"I'm thankful I was standing over her that day and I'm hoping she would have made the correct decision, but at the end of the day she's eight years old.
"I know there are a lot of parents out there that are busy; they might not understand the app, they might think their kids are up in their bedrooms playing on an iPad doing school work."
Musical.ly boasts more than 100 million users worldwide. It is known as "the youngest social network", targeting users under the age of 13.
Alicia said that with so many young people on the app, she worried about "how many predators are out there posing as god knows who".
Musical.ly has been contacted for comment.
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