Earlier this year, cricketer David Warner and his wife Candice admitted to posting their three daughters online. The daughers — all under the age of ten at the time— had their own public Instagram account. The Warners bragged that they amassed over 162,000 followers.
At the time, I wrote a post criticising their announcement. The harms of public social media for children isn’t a secret.
Fortunately, some public figures are determined to protect their children. They want their children remain out of the public eye.
Kendall Gilding vows to keep young children out of public eye
Last month, former 7News reporter wrote on QWeekend about children and social media. She opened with a chilling introduction:
I walked into a cafe recently, saw a toddler and immediately thought, “Hey I know you!” Except I didn’t. “No, it must be your mum I know.”. Except I didn’t.
In some cases, this could be the start of a parasocial relationship. Parasocial relationships are relationships that are one – sided. Parasocial relationships are often sparked by the adoration a fan has for a celebrity.
More and more, this is extending to social media influencers and vloggers.
Luckily, Gilding knew the boundaries. She knew she didn’t know the baby or the mother who she’d seen on social media. She didn’t fantasise about the child being hers, or being close to her in some way.
This awareness spurred on Gilding to make an important decision.
Gilding claims she won’t share images of her children on social media
Gilding admitted that her son and daughter had been featured in magazines, newspapers and Instagram. However, she’s never been comfortable posting her children on Instagram.
She claims she’s very protective of her daughter, who was born through IVF after years of infertility. Instead of sharing her daughter’s face on Instagram, she opted to sharing her baby’s hand.
Who is following the children?
YouTuber, Josh Barbour has campaigned against family vloggers and kid influencers since 2020.
His main argument has always been that children can’t give informed consent having their lives publicly displayed on social media.
He’s also exposed who most often interacts with child influencers online — especially girls. And he’s found that a large percentage of millions of interactions are made by adult men. Everleigh Labrant/ Smith is a troubling example.
Not only are adult men seeking young girls’ conternt, they often make inappropriate comments.
Arttificial Intelligence (AI) and the Dark Web are other dangers that child influencers are exposed to. Children’s voices and images can be used in child abuse material.
Yes, ot’s dark and sick, But this is what parents need to grapple with in 2024.
It boils down to this: do you want to protect your children or not?
This is the heart of the issue, isn’t it? Do you want to protect your (or anyone’s) children or don’t you? Do you care about the safety of your children?
Naturally, most parents — most adults — want to protect children. But the rise of family vloggers and kid influencers proves that not all adults do. Especially when money i# involved.
Posting children’s images and identities on public social media isn’t safe. Remember I mentioned parasocial relationships earlier? They can be toxic. ‘Fans’ can suddenly turn on their former idols.
Parasocial relationships can become obsessive. This can make an influencer uneasy. And, at it’s worst, if a fan becomes obsessed and realises where an influencer lives, it can become dangerous. Children shouldn’t be exposed to that.
What do you think? Should parents stop posting their children on public social media? Should it be outlawed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
