AIBU to ask my mum to stop WhatsApping baby photos?

You can use Signal and Telegram. There are alternatives. Great Aunt Joan in Australia isn’t likely to AI adapt your child’s photo into CSA images.

I don’t use any Meta products due to their privacy terms.

You need to sensibly balance risk here with normal connection & Grandparent excitement with real life risk to your child.

Parents who do go to extremes on this have a child no one sees or thinks about or feels connected to. That’s ok for you now but long term has an impact.

Don't ask her, TELL HER. "Mum its my rules or you don't get photos"

YANBU. My MIL is like this. Sends pictures of her grandchildren to all sorts of random (to me) people - people she went to uni with 50 years ago, distant relatives I'm never going to meet. She is an oversharer in general though - for e.g. her friend's son is currently in a coma in ICU and she sent out a group WhatsApp to everyone with loads of the boy's medical details, photos of him intubated etc. It felt really intrusive and voyeuristic for me receiving the messages.
I learned early on not to tell her anything I wouldn't want on a billboard, and although we do send her occasional photos of the DC we definitely send any where they’re e.g. in the bath, in their swimsuits etc.

Edited because I hadn't read the OP's updates when I posted, but those are my exact concerns. People are very naive to how (and how often) CSA happens. I encounter victims of CSA regularly in my professional life and - especially with the technology currently available - perpetrators do walk among us and will absolutely use innocuous images to create horrific ones.

Are there loads of paedophile that she knows then? Or like a lot of people, did she know one person who she never imagined would be abusive but was?

I dint blame anyone, especially from the past, of being ignorant about how abuse works. Women in particular have been conditioned to normalise some behaviours that made abuse easier.

Without being pedantic, OP’s has shared they were SA’d for most of their childhood, and their mother didn’t act on a suspicion she had. So, with kindness, I support OP in their discomfort & disapproval at having images circulated on WhatsApp by her mother, to people OP doesn’t know.

So what do you think all these peados in OP's mum's circle of friends are going to do with these images? Do you suppose they've never seen or come across real life babies before? Extract OP's home address and hunt the baby down?

Without meaning to be pedantic the OP suggests it’s sent to distant family friends, not unknowns

im sorry you’re surprised by my views. But if you read the replies I think you’re in the minority here, rather than me

There's nothing inherently risky about sharing images on WhatsApp.

OP might want to reconsider sharing anything with her mother ever again, though.

It doesn't involve direct messaging.

Being used by OP’s mother (who has a history of being a bad judge of character) to circulate images to people OP doesn’t know, against her wishes. I’m surprised you’re ok with this.

You’re being ridiculously controlling.

You do know there’s a dark web where weirdos can find awful
pictures don’t you?

those freaks aren’t interested in pics of ypur baby . They want to see abuse happening

It’s a messaging app.

like the vast majority of people I’d deem online as uploaded to a publicly available online platform.

i don’t care who owns it. Neither here nor there.

If she'd had the pictures printed and put in frames, would you expect her to place them face down every time someone came into her house?

Why are people so joyless and controlling these days?

i don’t understand why this is a problem though?

Have you read OPs update. I'm not sure her DM will be providing any childcare.

Do you not consider people sending images on WhatsApp as circulating images online?
WhatsApp is a social media platform, accessed online, owned by Meta. So if sending images on WhatsApp doesn’t meet your definition of circulating online, curious what does.

Yes you are being unreasonable.
shes a proud grandmother let her get on with it and be grateful for the help she’ll no doubt offer you later on.

Keep telling her NOT to share …… better still, stop sending photos to her.

I guess you can stop sending her photos but really what is the issue with her sending these photos to her friends? She must be beaming with pride. I would understand your annoyance if the child was old enough to be recognisable and the photos had a permanent online presence such as Facebook or Instagram.

But photos of a barely recognisable little bubs being send to friends?

FWIW I am generally against posting photos on Social Media.

So strange. And then people wonder why we have the society that we do.

It’s not being circulated online though is it. That’s the point

No, but OP can set clear boundaries and expect her family to respect those. It’s not so unusual to not want images of your child circulated online.

Do you know that people can use AI to undress babies? I suspect not from your comment about clothed images being the solution.

I don't think the real issue is about the photos but this is masking the fact that your mum didn't protect you from SA and this impacting how you view the world and protecting your own child.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.