I watched a YouTube video Q&A of an alt YouTuber where someone asked if she regretted starting YouTube. She said the main thing she regrets is sharing anything to do with her daughter online - she wishes she never shared her name, never posted her/made videos with her, even sharing that she exists or any info about her. She said she’s had to go back and delete every video her daughter is even briefly featured in because she’s now so uncomfortable with having shared her. Also, she says when people recognise her and come up to her in the street not only do they chat to her they also act like they know her daughter, aka overly familiar with her child. I don’t know if Carrie will ever have the brains to truly realise what sharing your child online opens them up to and regret it, but it just shows how bad of an idea it is. You never, ever know who is looking at those photos of your child you post online.
I've posted this story on Louise's thread before but I'll post it again here for the benefit of Carrie (and all the Hopefuls lurking here too).
When I was 13-14, I was active in the online fandom for a band who were quite niche, so we were quite a close knit community and had each other on socials. One fan joined about a year in and got super involved, running fan pages and leading projects, etc. She was a bit older than most of us (mid 20s-30s vs teens) and had a toddler called Addie. Most of her personal posts revolved around her little girl and their days out together, etc and she clearly adored her daughter.
She was in the fan community about 6 months, maybe even a year or so. Then one day I get a message from another (adult) fan, checking I was alright and warning me to stay away from her because she knew I was a bit 'close' to this woman.
Turns out that little girl she was posting everywhere?
Not her daughter. She was actually stealing the pictures of
someone else's kid from their Facebook and passing them off as her own, to the point of GOING TO THE SAME PLACES TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE THEY'D GONE TOGETHER. To this day, we have no idea why she did it, whether she was just lonely or bored or whether she was setting up something more sinister - like to scam money out of us or even to groom younger fans like me (because she was
particularly friendly with the younger teens, looking out 'as a mum').
As soon as she got caught out, she went dark. Deleted all her fan socials, vanished like she was never there. And the worst part is, we know she had all those photos saved - so nobody knows if she's
still using that little girl's face (who's probably a teen herself now) and pretending that's her daughter in another online space
So yeah, any time you post a photo online, you
really don't know who's saving it or what for.
Don't post your kids
) All WAY more famous than Cazza. She's not going to be able to resist showing her kid off.
