In thinking it's not ok to reveal your son's ASD diagnosis to 4million strangers on Instagram?

[Dabralor]

Mrs Hunch - Instagram cleaning woman- has posted a pic with her little son. He's had an autism diagnosis confirmed.

How can it be justifiable to share his private medical information with all these random strangers? Wherever he goes now in his life, a quick Google search will reveal really personal information about him. This information is no longer his to possess.

If my parents had done this to me, I don't think I could ever forgive them. I feel really sorry for the kids of social media stars 😔.

It’s not the choice I would make (or have made) but also I don’t think it carries the same stigma as in older generations. I’m also inclined to be generous toward a parent who is almost certainly dealing with quite a bit of stress.

No. It’s all private medical information.

It's exposing for a child to have complete strangers know who he is and personal details.

The McGuiness family hide the faces of their children but have been open about their Autism diagnosis and Christine herself was also diagnosed and has gone on to discuss it. But she is still protecting her children to a degree.

These children whose parents income relies on sharing intimate information will come to harm over it. Children need privacy and protection. When they have grown and matured they can then make decisions on what they share and with whom.

Yes. That information is private and is personal to the child. They can choose to reveal it themselves when they are old enough to make the decision. But the woman makes her money by selling her life and her children's privacy to the public.

For me, It's more about the fact the parent is broadcasting the child's sensitive medical information to the public (regardless of whether it's autism, diabetes, colour-blindness or anything else).

It's information that is just about a little kid now, who probably says "it's fine", but who most likely doesn't appreciate how permanent that information sharing is and who is too young to anticipate how they might feel about it in ten years' time.

Lots of people decide not to disclose their disabilities when going for job interviews, etc, but publicising it so widely means that child will never have the option of not disclosing their disabilities in certain situations depending on the context, as any potential employer (or anyone) could just Google them and find out anyway now.

I'm autistic and I'm neither proud nor ashamed of my diagnosis, but I do prefer to decide on a case-by-case basis whether I tell people, rather than having it pre-announced to everyone.

I don't think that's the point, and a broken leg isn't a 'condition' as such, but yes, sharing medical information with followers to promote your brand is not the best move.

Not speaking specifically about any particular influencer here, and I don't follow Mrs Hinch, but I do think that it can be hard for people to differentiate between their followers and their 'community', in fact using the terms interchangeably, and that posting about everything that happens in their lives is now so innate that they don't conciously think of it that way - as a commercial decision. That is why we need laws around it, to guide people, and as usual we are lagging behind.

I believe in France they have had such laws for a while. It's easily forseen that this is all going to be an issue in the near future. I would like to see the same laws enacted in the UK.

https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-france-law-aims-to-protect-kids-against-oversharing-parents/

There is a difference between your child choosing to share and be proud of their own medical information and a parent of a younger child doing it to millions of people. Massive difference.

How do feel about people who document their child's eg cancer journey to raise awareness and money. Is that ok?

@TomeTome- personally- yes. I don't agree with disclosing children's medical history on the internet

Correct me if I’m mistaken, in that autism is not a medical condition?

With any condition, be that medical or spectrum an individual has a right to privacy however in this case we don’t know that the child hasn't given consent.

@LittleMrsPretty

How else is awareness of ASD communicated? If people like Mrs Hinch (By that I mean people with influence) don't share it.

Christ, surely not?

Yes, absolutely.

and like you, OP, I would never forgive my parents for this type of exploitation. Fucking hell WTF.

I do post some pictures of DD on social media, but I don't post anything abut medical details I'm not even really sure why really, it just seems odd that as an adult there'll be the time she got chicken pox or hand, foot and mouth on social media.

I'm sure in some circumstance's its appropriate, but so far for me it just seems a bit odd.

Have you posted the same about Paddy and Christine McGuiness or is it just Mrs Hinch you have an issue with. Awareness is raised when it is someone in the public eye which has to be a good and positive thing surely. She will bring him up to see there is no shame in his diagnosis and by her openness he will see that it isn't a secret to be kept under wraps. This will therefore lead to him feeling more positive about himself.

She’s also said that she has been diagnosed with autism! So why not use that to raise awareness? Why bring her child into it?

"we don’t know that the child hasn't given consent"

He's FOUR. He can't have given consent!

You could say she is raising awareness but as he is too young to give consent I would not have done that without his agreement. It is nothing to be ashamed of though so I don't see why it should be hidden.

I imagine she has the means to pay for a private assessment.

I find a lot of what “influencers” share really uncomfortable. I watched a video of a Mum taking her little girl to preschool for the first time, she documented the lot, her tears at the door and when she first arrived. Something deeply unsettling about filming that and not just having both hands (and mind) free to support your child as best you can. Had images of the Mum fussing behind the screen making sure she had a good shot.

I follow some Mum influencers who never share their children. I can get on board with those.

She may as well have named those children Content and Content the Second.

I wonder how much she paid for that...

That's obviously different as the direct aim of publicising a child's serious illness is to raise the funds for medical treatment to make the child better. So the cost of not doing it is potentially that child's life.

Raising money for an ill child is not the same as disclosing a child's diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental or chronic medical condition where funds aren't required from the public to cure them.

There is no detriment to the child if their personal information about an autism diagnosis isn't shared on social media, whereas there is potentially a huge detriment to a child with a cancer diagnosis not having the funds for treatment.

But it's not her information to share - its fundamentally an issue of consent.

Her child, her choice.
Given massive following she has, I think she will help so much other families with autism by spreading awerness. So no, I don’t think she did anything wrong

I agree and I don’t think people should publicly share any medical or personal information that isn’t their own.

I don't use Instagram and I don't know anyone who follows Mrs Hinch so now, the only way I know she and her child are autistic is because you told me. I don't think she needed to announce it but it's her family and her business. Don't know why you needed to give it more airtime tbh.