Tears gushed down my cheeks, and I retched as I read the message and stared at photos on my phone. ‘No, it can’t be Lily*,’ I sobbed. I’d been sent screenshots – by a woman I didn’t know – from a website used by child abusers, and on them were photos of my baby daughter. My eyes moved to the comments underneath Lily’s picture and my stomach heaved again as I collapsed in more horrified sobs.
Hearing my wails, Peter*, my partner, dashed in and desperately tried to calm me down, but I was inconsolable. And I just kept thinking… Was this my fault?
When I’d first fallen pregnant with Lily in March 2017, I’d been totally against the idea of putting pictures of her on social media.
‘No photos online, please,’ I’d instructed friends and family before the birth. ‘You never know who might be looking.’
Peter, then 27, was in total agreement. ‘We just want to keep our baby safe,’ he told people.
But, after she was born on 26 December 2017, Lily was so beautiful, with her chubby cheeks and wide green eyes, that we changed our minds.
‘I want everyone to see how gorgeous she is,’ I told Peter, snapping photos as she cooed in her cot.
Peter couldn’t help himself either. At first, we just sent the photos to our family and friends, but when Lily was two weeks old, I started a blog and Instagram account so I could write about my parenting experiences.
Working as a personal bodyguard, Peter would be away for weeks at a time, so he was pleased to be able to follow Lily’s progress on Instagram.
Horrifying exploitation
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 05, 2021-Ausgabe von WOMAN'S OWN.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 05, 2021-Ausgabe von WOMAN'S OWN.
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