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Being on Facebook and Instagram is okay for those who have voting cards, but why would a parent open a social media account for a two-year-old who is hardly out of diapers?
Even a five-year-old can hardly understand the whole hullaballoo of having 1,000 followers on Instagram. Or strangers loving pictures and liking posts. And in this age of cyber bullying, underage cyber porn, cyber-crime, stalking and digital child-napping, where their images are ‘stolen’ for advertisements and the attendant dangers of being over-exposed on social media, shouldn’t parents shield their children from over exposure to the outside world?
After all, a jilted ex-file might just be following your kid’s life online with very sinister intentions of hurting you where it hurts the most. With social media, there is a thin line between privacy and security.
Take Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz’s daughter, Tiffah. She had 20,000 followers on Intagram 24 hours after her birth in 2015.
Today, she has close to 740,000 followers on Instagram, with her photos ranging from being with her parents to gifts she has received.
Security analyst Richard Tuta warns that uploading photos on Instagram, even when not intending to share them out, means “you don’t have control of the platform and photos of your house get to the public domain and somebody with intention to attack you could know how to go about it and what to expect.”
But local celebs seem unaware of such dangers and many have posted pictures of their babies on Instagram.
Former musician and radio presenter, Talia Oyando’s son Lyric Onyango, is on Instagram.
The dread-locked Lyric is three years old. He has 3,263 followers, although he follows only 24 people. His Instagram shows him in various playful modes at home, going to school and with friends. The pictures with his parents and other relatives stretch to when he was a toddler.
Popular fashion stylist and blogger, Silvia Njoki’s daughter, Nielsine Muthoni, commands 3,400 followers on Instagram.
She is barely five years old. But her following is pegged on the fact that she could be one of the youngest fashionistas in Kenya. If a fashionista is someone who is devoted to fashion, particularly high fashion, then her pictures on Instagram will give you an inkling why her mother is a stylist of note, besides winning the 2014 best fashion blog award when Muthoni was only one year, seven months old.
On why she got her baby girl on Instagram, Njoki told the online Pendotalk in 2015 that, “I only show my daughter wearing outfits” and that when she started her fashion blog, “It was all about baby style, so of course I had to post photos of her wearing my creations. As I quickly discovered, my readers loved to see her. I felt encouraged to also post photos of her wearing outfits I had bought. I even created a segment on my blog called Baby Style.”
While kids have no say when their parents open Instagram accounts, Njoki told Pendotalk that, “I have never regretted that I took that decision for Nielsine, but when she grows old enough to voice her own opinion, I shall of course respect it, even if it means not exposing her any more on social media.”
Then there is musician Rabbit’s daughter, Gweth.
The baby who can weight-lift a watermelon, has 4,500 followers on Instagram with most of her posts appearing like a family album, with regular appearances from her dad, and comments appreciating her beauty.
DJ Crème de la Crème’s son, Jamari, is another hit on Instagram.
His account offers a sneak peek into his life; home, school and family fun, besides the occasional inspirational post. In one photo, he reminds his followers to always smile. Jamari is around three and now boasts over 5,000 followers on Instagram.
