Growing up, many of us can recall getting oddly specific warnings from our mothers whenever we were about to embark on one of life’s little adventures.
And while they often sounded strange, it usually didn’t take us long to learn that our moms knew what they were talking about when we ended up encountering the very situation that seemed so far-fetched in their warnings.
In the age of the internet, we’ve seen that the moms of the world are just as keen to warn us as before and they quickly prove that they have some painful and even tragic experiences to back their words of advice up.
But while their warnings are usually intended to prevent ourselves or our own children from getting hurt, one mom has noticed that one problem she recently uncovered is bigger than any one family.
Over the past four years, Katy Rose Prichard of Oklahoma has built quite a following for herself on Instagram.
According to Good Morning America , she specifically built a brand as a parenting influencer after seeing other moms adopt similar strategies. Since she had just had a child when she started, that seemed as good of a time as any to chronicle the experiences of her growing family.
And in the time since, the mother of four has not only amassed close to 100,000 followers but also started working out brand deals with small businesses.
And while Prichard has described herself as “more than just mother,” her kids are nonetheless the largest part of her life and her content.
For this reason, she posted enough photos and details about her children that her followers could get a sense of not only what her kids looked like, but who they were.
However, the past two months have seen Prichard take down all photos of her children’s faces and scrub their names and other identifying information from her page.
As she wrote in the caption of one of her posts , “While i carry much regret for my ignorance in the past, there’s some peace. It’s somewhat a relief setting much-needed boundaries and spreading awareness.”
And if you’re wondering what she’s talking about there, she went on to explain that her family was a victim of a social media trend known as “role playing.”
By that, I mean that other accounts had stolen photos of her children and pretended they were the fake children of false influencers who they want other people to send direct messages to.
As Prichard said, “They had given us new identities, new names, an entire storyline, essentially pretending, playing like they were us.”
If you read the fabricated backstory in the image here, you’ll notice the purpose for doing this (at least in this case) seems to involve enticing other children to try and contact “Oakley” in order to be her friend.
I’m sure you can fill in the blanks yourself as to why an adult would want to lure children into befriending them.
And while Prichard and other families affected by this practice have felt personally violated by the way their children’s photos and personal information is being used, they also want to warn other parents about what kind of information they’re sharing with the world.
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In her words, “We are so conditioned to post every move that we don’t even think before doing so because it’s just out of habit. And I just believe all kids should have the right to their privacy until they’re fully able to consent.”
h/t: Good Morning America
