Parents posting their disabled children on social media

[MarysDressWaves]

Is it just me who finds this a bit questionable as in a few of the videos I've seen, the child is either too unwell to give consent (eg lying in hospital bed on a ventilator) or due to ND type disabilities may not be fully aware either. I understand that parents may want support, or to raise awareness but that about the rights of the child?

YANBU, no children should be posted on SM.

Username: mama bear 🙄 Guessing you have an account where you post your ND kids having meltdowns to the world so you can be told what a great mum you are.

Of course it’s wrong and hopefully the law will catch up soon and ban it. Poor kids can’t consent to being paraded in front of millions of random strangers, some with quite twisted opinions. Absolutely no time for mumfluencers who show their kids’ faces for money. It’s so selfish.

Are you talking about influencer style accounts or just general people posting their kids on their socials? Because I’d always think of the intention - if you’re posting because you need to raise awareness / money for obscure treatment then fair play - you’d do anything for your child right? If it’s for monetising because it’s trending and you want it to replace a career of sorts then I agree with your sentiment. If it’s the latter though, if parents can post cutesy pictures of their kids at a pumpkin patch for their friends and family then why would a parent of a child with disabilities have to hide them away?

I don't post my disabled son because it feels an invasion of his privacy. I do watch others videos and have found some useful or comforting in terms of seeing there are others in similar situations so I'm in no position to judge when I'm giving them views. I do find the ones were children are distressed or their dignity isn't protected very uncomfortable and worry for the children when they're older.
There was a school mum who posted very personal details about her child being suicidal and him needing a stoma when he was around 10. I felt that really crossed the line, there could have been parents passing that info to his class mates when he probably didn't want everyone to know.

I presumed it was the ones who do it for clicks, not ones who post pics from days out. There’s one woman on tiktok who has a daughter with autism and PDA. Daughter is about 9 or so. The content is so inappropriate with clips of the DD screaming and smashing things up and then long monologues about how her mum (the child’s grandma) can’t cope with the behaviour and everything is so hard etc. She then picks the cruellest comments, eg someone saying “what your daughter needs is a good smack” and does a new post about that.

The influencer type posts, i guess I really mean the monetised posts. It just feels wrong to make money from your children this way.

That being said however, i do know how restricting and expensive it is to have a child in hospital long term so maybe there is a real need for money. Having been in that position I can understand it. But, to have extreme close ups of your very ill child, or a very distressed child in full meltdown almost daily, seems cruel and invasive to those children.

I agree.

I posted pictures of my son online when he was on a ventilator largely for support during the time but also to raise awareness. It was also a private page for family/friends and an easy way to update them.

I didn't make any money from it though and wouldn't have done that.

I follow some posters who I think post sensitively about their own child and the community. Personally I have never said on Facebook/insta etc that my daughter is autistic. I feel it’s personal to her and up to her to decide who she shares that information with and when. we are open about it in real life though.

I agree with this. What child gives their consent to be posted on SM? Why is it different for disabled children?

My dgd is nt but since birth all family have only pied on private accounts with no public access. She is too young to give consent to being on show and is entitled to her privacy.
Thankfully a lot of politicians have wised up, so after Blair’s kids on display, public have rightly never seen recent prime ministers’ kids