Warning! Apple Music Could Expose Your Kids to Predators

Published: June 27, 2025

By Michaela Gordoni

Kids can engage in private chats on Apple Music, it turns out.

Officer David Gomez, a famous policeman passionate about online child safety, shared how it works: “Kids can create a new playlist in Apple Music and type a message in the playlist name (example: ‘Meet me at 2pm’ or worse…). Then, they invite a collaborator to the playlist. That invite sends the playlist title — aka the message — to the other person.”

The person on the other end can respond by creating a new playlist with a message in the title.

“While this method is slow and clunky, it bypasses most parental controls and can be used if parents have locked down text, social media, and messaging apps,” Officer Gomez explained in a Facebook post. “Years ago, I took a case where a 35-year-old man was sexting a 14-year-old girl using this same technique on Spotify.”

He explained that when devices have internet access, kids can find ways to communicate.

“Stay curious. Stay involved. Stay alert,” he warned parents.

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A post shared by David Gomez (@deputygomez)

One parent commented, “This happened with my daughter years ago. A boy in youth group taught her these skills. Thankfully, one day I was looking over her playlist and this was revealed, so my husband and I could intervene and have hard conversations with her. We never thought it could happen in this way…”

“It’s hard to fight intent. This is a clever ‘hack’ but it also highlights how very very important it is to be well connected to your children and to have good clear communication and personal standards about WHY boundaries with tech are important and critical to personal safety,” another person commented.

In Spotify’s case, users could also upload photos for playlists. There were instances of children uploading explicit photos of themselves after being groomed by predators.

“I felt physically sick. When I searched her name on Spotify I could see her playlist. We could see pictures she’d uploaded on there. They were very explicit,” one parent said upon discovering her 11-year-old had been groomed through the app.

Bitdefender, a global cybersecurity company, recommends parents have conversations with their kids about what apps they use and how they work, as well as educating them about online interactions. It suggests adjusting settings to keep their music streaming private and limit their access to explicit tracks. Parents can also look for kid-friendly streaming platforms instead of using the mainstream ones like Apple Music.

Every parent has a serious duty to protect their children, and that duty certainly applies in the cyberworld, and yes, even music streaming apps.

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