Honey, I posted the kids

Content creation is fun when the whole family is on camera. But lines blur, kids change and private moments rarely stay private. Here's where some mums draw the line

- Tanisha Saxena

We started off solo, facing webcams to share gaming advice, beauty tips, school-bullying experiences. One by one, other members of the family popped into the frame. Ageing-but-wrinklefree moms offered proof that sunscreen works. Gamers tried out the new GTA with the kids. Babies in parenting videos grew up as we watched.

Slowly, the lines between what's public and what's private started to blur. In the West, content creators such as Annalee Grace (@Annalee15) and Maia Knight (@MaiaKnight) are no longer featuring their children online, citing concerns over privacy, exploitation, and the impact on their kids' lives. The American state of Illinois now requires adults to pay children under the age of 16 if they appear in at least 30% of their social media content. In India, Sameera Reddy, Stuti Agarwal, Ragendu KR and Shreya Mitra all post about family life. Here's what they now do differently.

Early missteps

Jamshedpur resident Shreya Mitra, 32, opened up about her battle with postpartum depression on Instagram (@Raising_Shaan), 21 months after becoming a mom in 2016. Her candid videos have helped followers, many of them new mothers, examine and share their own experiences. But alongside, Mitra would also post shots of her son, Shaan, capturing his chubby cheeks and sparkling eyes. Audiences loved it. She continued.