Adult poses as a 13-year-old girl on sharing app TikTok

A parent's worst nightmare: Adult poses as a 13-year-old girl on sharing app TikTok and receives replies from men within MINUTES - but supporters say users just need 'thick skin' TikTok has spent two years climbing towards major competitors like Snapchat Cyber security experts have become wary following the apps quick success An investigation has revealed predators message teenagers on the app One journalist found 100 explicit messages which he reported to TikTok's admin  The Rybka twins, who have six-million followers, said thick skin is needed for app

By Zoe Zaczek For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 21:43 BST, 24 June 2019 | Updated: 21:56 BST, 24 June 2019

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An adult posed as a teenage girl on TikTok and received replies within minutes - amid fears predators are lurking on the up-and-coming social media app.

TikTok, a short-form video app with 500 million users, launched in 2017 and has spent the past two years climbing towards major competitors Snapchat and Instagram.

The quick success of the app has left some parents concerned about its safety, with cyber experts warning it is being used by predators.

BBC journalist Marco Silva investigated TikTok over a three-month period in the UK.

In one instance, Mr Silva told A Current Affair a teenager was offered free flights to Turkey to spend a few days with the stranger. 

Pictured: The Rybka twins from Perth who have more than six-million followers on up-and-coming social media app TikTok

Pictured: The Rybka twins from Perth who have more than six-million followers on up-and-coming social media app TikTok

Following concerns about the safety of the app, A Current Affair staged their own fake profile, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl

Following concerns about the safety of the app, A Current Affair staged their own fake profile, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl

Other adult users offered money and urged teenage girls to take off their tops, Mr Silva found.

'While the majority of the comments were indeed taken down after they were reported, only a handful ... of the accounts that were posting those comments were suspended from TikTok,' Mr Silva said. 

Following concerns about the safety of the app, A Current Affair staged their own fake profile, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl.

Within minutes they received messages from a 40-year-old man who wrote 'your (sic) very beautiful I wish there was more pics than just one'. 

Teagan and Sam, known as the Rybka twins, have more than six million followers on the app. 

The sisters from Perth, who often share videos of their dancing and acrobatic talents, said it was 'crazy' how quickly they shot up to six-million followers from one-million.  

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