Mothers Are Horrified By New Online Trend Involving Their Own Children

06 Jun, 2015 by Sierra Marlee

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If you’ve been on the internet for more than five seconds, you already know that not everyone is who they say they are. Just because they posted a picture on their social media doesn’t mean that they took said picture. Some mothers learned this lesson the hard way when pictures of their babies were stolen by others who were claiming to be the parent of that child in what is being called “baby role playing.”

From IJReview:

Many proud parents don’t think twice about sharing their child’s accomplishments and photos on Facebook or Instagram— after all, it’s part of the “social” element in social media.

However, the very ease with which these pictures can be saved and shared has led to a very disturbing online trend.

As Yahoo! Parenting reports, Lindsey Paris was shocked when she clicked on a new Facebook follower of her online blog only to find herself looking at a picture of her own toddler son.

The stranger was claiming that Lindsey’s son was her own little boy, and though the stranger removed the picture after a strongly worded email from Lindsey, the episode left Lindsey shaken and angry.

“She was pretending that he was her own and commenting on when was he going to start teething,” Lindsey told Yahoo Parenting. “Her friends were saying that they loved his hair. She was treating him as her own and that was the most petrifying thing. I didn’t know people did this.”

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lindsey isn’t the first parent to find that online pictures of their children have been stolen and reused by others.

In fact, in the world of baby roleplay — where anonymous internet users utilize stolen photos to play out fantasy scenarios — the results can be truly upsetting.

As WPTV News reports, Angelica Calad thought that the only people following the Instagram feed where she posted photos of her daughter Taylen were friends, family, and people who loved baby fashion. Then she and her husband learned that some Instagram users were using Taylen’s picture in role playing that became sexually explicit.

“It’s beyond disturbing, I couldn’t even read it,” Angelica told WPTV News.

Angelica reported the offensive accounts to Instagram, but it’s difficult to stop the role playing completely. As quickly as some accounts are removed or blocked, others can pop up in their place.

In addition to the upsetting experience of seeing a child’s photo reused for role playing purposes, there’s also a serious safety concern.

Call it whatever you want, it’s disgusting to take the photos of another person and claim that they are yours. It’s even MORE disgusting when you’re pretending that someone’s baby is your own. These people need serious psychological evaluation.