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 😔.

I have two children with autism and I don’t see how she is helping me in the slightest. I’d never publicly out my children for their medical conditions. Then again, I don’t monetise them or plaster pictures of them all over the internet either.

Lisa Lloyd - astwitha_g&t

Raises awareness, campaigns and has made some real positive changes and her children aren’t featured in her content. I suspect that’s because her intentions are genuinely for the greater good of autistic people and children and not just to raise her own profile and generate revenue.

She comes over as a bit of a twit. But seems to be quite savvy where making money is concerned. Anything for a dollar springs to mind.

Probably the same reason you added to the airtime by replying.

but here you are following her for all the little juicy titbits of Mrs Hinch to post on the Internet further spreading her child's medical information the very thing you are complaining about!

So many kids are growing up with their parents’ phone cameras in their faces all day every day. I feel really sorry for them. I see a time where some of these kids when grown up will challenge their parents for this invasion of privacy.

So I disagree with this exposing of a diagnosis/condition but I also disagree with posting pics of tantrums, potty training, tears etc. All these private moments shown to the world.

Agree. Surely that's exactly why she shared it - to raise awareness, so that people don't feel shame about it?

People are essentially suggesting that she should 'keep it quiet'.

I suspect there'll be more than just memoirs! Possibly lawsuits as well.

Really? I don't mention anything about my kids on social media and neither do any of my friends. No pics at all.

I think it's usually needy attention seeker types who post endless updates about their kids and fur babies,
😳😂

She comes across as well-meaning if not the brightest so I think it is done with good intentions and to address the many questions she says she's been getting but I'm not convinced sharing your kids as much as she and other influencers do is a the best plan - I can see some of them rebelling big time when they are older because they aren't currently old enough to express whether it's something they want or not.

I agree op. My daughter has adhd and is on the spectrum and she is very particular about who she does and doesn't tell. As her parent I told those that needed to know, family, school etc but in relation to her peers it was up to her. She doesn't trust everyone and feels that not everyone will understand and will label her and she is right. I am very glad I didn't openly broadcast it when she was smaller when she didn't yet have a voice to express her own views on it.

Unfortunately it is not like other medical conditions like asthma. People don't relate to people with asthma differently but they do with people who have autism. People are cruel. They are often treated differently by their peers, undermined, bullied, overlooked. My daughter does not want everyone knowing until she is ready and that is her choice and as a 16 year old she finally does have the confidence to talk about it with her peers, to explain how she feels, thinks and acts and she has recently completed a project and presentation in school on autism and bullying. I am very glad she could do all this at her pace.

They aren't suggesting she should keep quiet, they're suggesting she doesn't share her child's private medical information with millions of people. If she wanted to share an autism story she could talk about her own diagnosis.

I agree but these people live in a different world to you and me 😂. I guess the effects on the kids and their lives when older will only be revealed at that time 🤷‍♀️

The 'sad beige' lady on Instagram, and probably tiktok, is very good on this subject. She is also very funny.

Her child, her choice.
No. A child cannot give consent. This isn’t sharing info with family, friends, or even parents at school. Shes sharing it with millions, which is fundamentally wrong. (And yes, it would be the same if it was a diagnosis of epilepsy, dyslexia or any other medical or neuro condition.)
As much as I, as a woman with ASD, can’t get on board with Christine McGuiness, at least she doesn’t show her kids faces on SM. The few SM ‘influencers’ I follow who have children with ASD and post about it, don’t show their children. At all.
Because of the sheer number of her followers, this is an extreme example, but I don’t think any parent should be sharing medical or private details about their child on public SM, when there’s no way their child could have given consent.
It’s not about anyone judging people with ASD, it’s about privacy and safeguarding a vulnerable child.

As she has also been diagnosed herself, she can raise awareness by talking about her own diagnosis.

Her son can raise awareness if he chooses to when he’s old enough to decide for himself.

I don’t think influencers should be monetising their children’s lives and medical information online to thousands/millions of followers, whether that be ASD, epilepsy, asthma or anything else.

My own daughter has been diagnosed with ASD, and she also has Tourette’s and has chosen to share that information to raise awareness and talk about her diagnoses on Instagram and TikTok. Difference is, she’s 18 and has decided to do that herself. It’s not my place to do that.

A lot of the people who feel like the op are autistic themselves.

Awareness can be raised without someone giving a child's medical info to a massive platform.

I'm autistic and would have hated having that announced to the world and have my life used as content/awareness. I have IBS too, I wouldn't like that to be documented on a public social media platform either.

There's lots of ways of raising awareness without documenting her child's life to millions of strangers. If that's what her aim is, im sceptical but thats I have seen some family influencer types use their children's health conditions bad content and put their very vulnerable moments online when they can't give informed consent for that.

Awareness can be raised in many ways and the people objecting to this aren't ignorant. Children shouldn't be content for millions of people.

I'm 50/50 on this.
I don't think you should share pictures of your children and private information about them online because children can't consent.
I don't think an Autism diagnosis is shameful or any different to sharing any other long term health diagnosis - and I think increasing awareness is a great thing.
However you can increase awareness without putting your child's face, geographical location and full name next to that diagnosis.
Mrs Hinch by far isn't the only "celebrity" who puts her kids all over the internet - As an example, Stacey Solomon does it too (and doesn't get ripped to shreds half as much about it).
I basically feel like the issue is not that she has shared the diagnosis (because that can be a really positive thing), but that she (and others) overshare their child's personal information far far too much with a very large group of people they don't know.

FWIW, for the vast majority of celebrities/influencers who share their child's diagnosis with the public, I suspect they have good intentions and simply haven't thought through the long-term consequences for the child.

Most are used to receiving support from their fan base and probably sometimes feel the need to seek it, and they're also probably keen to indicate they're not ashamed of the diagnosis and trying to model being open and positive about the diagnosis for their child's benefit, so it's not surprising that this happens.

I think it's unfortunate for the children to have that sensitive medical information in the public domain before they're old enough to be able to meaningfully consent to it, but I don't believe that most influencer/celebrity parents who do this are thinking "fuck my kid, money's more important".

It's hard to anticipate things you've never experienced, and if she is autistic and public about her diagnosis, it might not have occurred to her that other autistic people might have good reasons to want to keep it quiet in certain situations, because in her career it's probably been received positively.

I think sharing children with the Internet is actually quite cruel. I love and am so proud of my kids and I'll share pictures with our circle of people but that aside nope. As much as I'd love to share my kids funny things or hear others, share that loveliness I also think the world is filled with predators or cruel people so for me, exposure of kids is a nah. I've very strong feelings about certain insta families and I won't ever view their content because I believe its absolute abuse.
However, I do explain to people that one of my dc is autistic, I originally never used to but he can seem like a massive rude arse of a kid without the knowledge.
I'm also raising him to understand he does have autism and we're proud of how he copes or even doesn't, for letting us know he's struggling. If he has a little episode I explain after it that his autism can really make his feelings wild and we have to work together on getting him to feel calmer. I worry so much I'm fucking up by doing this because it is his information to share, but I'd hate him to be seen as an arsehole kid because he's having a meltdown over something so mundane to most of us, such as a glacier cherry not being perfectly formed. That is the kind of shit that's ruining his day. 💔

Sorry I merailed that, I just couldn't say "yes she's been shitty doing that" when I'm somewhat guilty of sharing my DCs diagnosis also 🥺

I disagree entirely OP.

On the broader point about sharing personal information about children, I agree - I don't do it myself, and now my DC are of an age where they can say if they are happy for me to share a photo or not (mostly not).

However, in relation to your specific OP, I think you're clearly making a judgment about her - I am not a fan at all, and agree that most things she does are about monetising her brand.

Potentially she is doing this with her DS and his diagnosis, and if so, I'd have a negative view of it.

However, on the face of your OP, sharing details of a condition her DS has, as with any other condition, is not problematic in itself. If, for example, she starts giving specific details about challenges he may face, or reveals information from medical appointments, that's entirely different. For many different reasons, people in the public eye, may choose to share at least the information that their DC has a certain condition. This can be done without exploiting the DC.

I haven't seen any of her posts, don't follow her so am only going on your post, and I think on that basis YABU

Not unreasonable of you at all OP. I'm always surprised that in 2023 people still think it's their God given right to share everything about their children on social media. You would have thought by now anyone with a bit of common sense would realise that it's not only unnecessary but also unwise.

There’s a difference between telling close family and friends your child is autistic, sharing experiences anonymously on a forum about your experiences parenting an autistic child, and openly monetising your child’s diagnosis for the general public.

Being private with your child’s diagnosis is not about being ashamed of being autistic it’s about allowing your child the autonomy to share THEIR diagnosis when they are old enough to understand the implications of doing so on such a public platform and are ready and able to deal with the consequences of doing so.

Yeah it’s gross - but I’m not surprised by it at all. He has had his entire life shared with millions and monetised by his parents, I don’t see why they would stop now.

I would hate for millions of people to know everything about me, I don’t even like my mum posting an unflattering picture of me for Auntie Sharon to see on Facebook and I’m 33. I do wonder how it will affect these insta kids when they are older.

This is the same woman that shared images on her son using a potty with only her thumb covering him. Which is so unbelievably vile I don’t think I have enough words for it. This was then shared by another company.

This woman has absolutely no fucking idea how to protect her children, and shouldn’t be allowed to share so much of their lives.