The mother of a popular young social media star has revealed the dark side of being a child influencer.
Nina Gonthier’s four-year-old son Jerome has more than 97,000 followers on his Instagram account, run by his mother, and earns “a few thousand each year.”
His page features over 900 photographs including close-ups of his face, images of him modeling new clothes, and photos during different outings.
But Nina has revealed how shocked she was when she discovered her son’s photos were being used by fake accounts, including an adoption website.
“As a mother, I believe in doing everything I can to protect him and do everything safely,” she told ABC’s Four Corners.
Nina Gonthier has revealed she found the photo of her four-year-old son Jerome on an adoption site after posting photos of him on Instagram.
“I don’t post when they are topless or in diapers where the images can be manipulated or I take photos of particular streets where you could share any type of location.”
He explained that that was why he was surprised to discover that other accounts had stolen the photos and decided to contact them.
‘(It was horrible. Especially when they make fun of me saying “he’s my son” when he’s sitting next to me. What do they get out of that? It’s frustrating, but there’s really not much I can do,” he explained.
However, Nina’s heart sank when she was informed that an American adoption agency’s website used images of her son.
Jerome has more than 97,000 followers on his Instagram account, run by his mother, and earns “a few thousand each year.”
Nina’s ‘sunken heart’ when she was told about an American adoption agency website that used images of her son
‘I felt my heart sink. To be honest, I practically started crying, I got goosebumps all over my body, like how did it get here? she said.
“I felt horrible, as a mother you want to protect your child and I felt like that was now out of my control.”
She said the experience has been a “huge learning curve,” but she doesn’t plan to close her son’s account.
“I love it, he loves it and I guess it’s up to him if he wants to continue, and I’m being extremely careful and protective of him right now,” she said.
He said the experience has been a “big learning curve,” but he doesn’t plan to close his son’s account.
The mother of 10-year-old Ava also revealed the downsides of her daughter’s social media account on the show.
Ava has 14,000 followers on Instagram and earns around $500 each month in deals.
However, her mother Zoe admitted that she had to delete sexually explicit comments on posts, as well as explicit images sent via direct message.
“The first time I got one, I felt sick to my stomach, really sick,” he said.
Zoe explained that Ava likes to influence because she finds reading and writing difficult and it has “helped boost her confidence.”
He said he will continue to support his daughter’s page and monitor messages.
‘She could be anywhere, on or off social media, and there could be pedophiles. It happens in schools, it happens anywhere,” Zoe said.
The mother of influencer Ava, 10, also revealed how she had to delete sexually explicit comments on her posts, as well as explicit images sent via direct messages.
Bobbi, a Queensland influencer who is now 15, also had a similar experience when her page received sexual comments from men.
Her mother, Kym, started Bobbi’s account when she was seven to promote her dancing talent and gained 250,000 followers.
But Kym was forced to spend several hours a day deleting comments and blocking people.
He also noticed that several fake accounts were created and attempted to contact Instagram to remove them.
But Kym woke up one day to find that Instagram had deleted Bobbi’s real account.
‘That was like, “Are you kidding me?” That’s her entire career and they just erased it,” she said.