Celebrities open up as to why they open Instagram accounts for their toddlers

Instagram queens and kings will take you through their pregnancy journeys up until baby is born Most will post on their baby’s accounts in first person and even bash anyone that tries to leave an unkind comment Research shows that over 40 per cent of moms aged 18 to 34 in the United States created social media accounts for their baby before the child’s first birthday

Instagram queens and kings are taking over the online space and they have nothing to hide. They will every detail of their trip abroad, share those selfies with grandma in the village, take you through their pregnancy journeys up until baby is born, then voila! open accounts for the Little Ones.

While most will post on their baby’s accounts in first person and even bash anyone that tries to leave an unkind comment, their followers can only watch. After all it is social media: the more intriguing the better.

Celebrity babies now have Instagram accounts complete with daily posts that showcase their first wink, first outfit, and first friend – basically every first detail of their lives.

There is a genuine question though: why would a parent open a dedicated account for their baby, then go ahead to run it?

Research shows that over 40 per cent of moms aged 18 to 34 in the United States created social media accounts for their baby before the child’s first birthday. Another 7 percent made one before the kid’s second birthday. Majority however are battling with the thought in the first place.

Local celebrity babies are increasingly getting online profiles with most bragging thousands of followers and a select few with over 100, 000 followers.

Local celebrity couple, DJ Mo and Size 8 have done a great job of keeping their baby’s Instagram profile well-updated. With over 250,000 followers and 322 photos, it all started with a re-post photo of DJ Mo welcoming baby Ladasha to the world on November 19, 2015.

Intriguingly, early posts involve Ladasha appreciating the warm welcome to Instagram, her first bath, first attire then fast forward to date, her account shows a young Ladasha in play-group class.

In the same fashion, Tanzania star Diamond and his wife Zari opened an account for their baby Princess Tiffah days before she was born and upon her birth, she had an endorsement in waiting. Today, Latiffah is the most followed East African baby with 1.6 million followers and 1002 posts most of which are uploaded by her mother, Zari.

At birth, one of Tanzania’s baby shop had offered the celebrity parents a one-year contract that would see baby Tiffah showcasing and using their products. As time goes, we expect more of such endorsements as parents strive to turn their babies into brands and make money.

Just like her celebrity parents, Ladasha has amassed a following and won sponsorships in equal measure. She is the star kid in a diapers advertisement alongside her celebrity mother.

The baby products for different brands clearly show that this family has a money-making strategy up their sleeve. “We knew that Ladasha would potentially attract a lot of followers when we opened her account, but more so, we prayed that she would get roles as a child ambassador which has happened,” DJ Mo says. In regards to running the baby’s accounts on a consistent basis and asking Baby to pose for the photos, DJ Mo adds that that is never a problem.

“When you get a baby and you love photos, best believe that your phone will be full of baby photos. Size 8 and I have too many photos of Ladasha and that allow us to keep posting on her page, sometimes on a daily basis,” DJ Mo adds.

For Princess Tiffah there have been days when her mother asked her to pose for the photos and after several trials, she looked too tired for this Instagram life. One of the most watched videos on her page shows Zari asking her to “pose, pose some more, pose again” close to 5 times and on the last try, Tiffah shows a disappointed face saying, “But mama!!!”

Instagram babies have even mastered the posing game and such was the case when fashion stylist Silvia Njoki opened an account for her daughter Nielsine’s closet which currently has 4,757 followers and 83 posts. Silvia calls the account “my daughter’s wardrobe diary” and her purpose was to showcase Nielsen’s baby fashion so her followers don’t always feel bombarded with content on a first person basis.

With Ladasha’s page being one of the most active Instagram baby pages in Kenya, one wonders whether her celebrity parents feel she is too exposed to a grown online crowd

“Before opening the account, Size 8 and I knew that there would be a huge following on her page with some even posting random comments, but we decided to look at the bigger picture. Either way, we would be posting Ladasha on our personal pages to an even bigger audience so why not just open a dedicated page for her so that we could still run ours?” DJ Mo asks.

Seeing that they had showcased their daughter going to school, plus other details that would expose her to stalkers, were they worried about her safety? “For a start, we didn’t put the school name online, of course we have to be keen in regards to how much information we share with the world about our daughter. We know that not everybody has good intentions but we can’t always live in fear. So many other babies have pages online and nothing has happened.”

But what if Ladasha didn’t want the page when she grew up?“For us it’s like an online album for our daughter, then a chance to share her growth with our friends and fans. But if she doesn’t like it, we would simply delete it and allow her to thrive in her platform of choice. Maybe Instagram will even be outdated when she is old enough for social media, but as of now, let us grow the platform and build her brand as well,” DJ Mo opines.

DJ Crème is another celebrity whose baby Jamari had a thriving Instagram account. On it, a cute Jamari could be seen showcasing outfits for different brands and even playing with his father’s DJ equipment. Fast forward and the celebrity couple welcomed their daughter Zawadi but just as the fans were warming up to another Instagram baby account, Jamari’s account @jamarijamjam was “no longer available”

So were there any worries about DJ Crème and his wife Dee having their son’s account out there?

“As parents, everyone wants the best for their children, so when we opened Jamari’s account we were all about positive vibes and showing our son’s milestones. But then we realised that online trolls exist and we were not ready to have them on our son’s profile.”

Understandably so, parents have had to battle trolls and delete unkind comments from their baby’s Instagram accounts. This was seen for Hamisa Mobetto, Diamond’s baby mama, who opened an account for her son “@officialprinceabdul” but the trolls came and camped on the comment sections with tons of hate.

As it were, some online trolls were not about to welcome Hamisa’s son with kind words. Some even took the chance to abuse Hamisa on her son’s profile, forcing her to make the account private.

“We have seen online trolls causing suicides among teens. A teenager receives unkind comments on their page, from people they may not even know personally and they feel so depressed, so imagine how it would feel to grow up and realise people didn’t like you and your mother when you were a child?” Dr Lincoln Kakaya, a psychologist says suggesting that the online accounts may have long-term negative effects especially on children.

Other celebrities like Nazizi Hirji, Talia Oyando, and HeyZ Da Brand put up accounts for their babies, but chose to keep them private, and this trend seems to be on a roll. The future will definitely see more babies showcased online and brands are eagerly waiting to pounce on the opportunity.

Having seen celebrities like David Beckham open accounts for their children, is this what motivates trendy parents to open the Instagram accounts for their children?

“As a celebrity, I have had people approach me to showcase their products and I knew that having a page for my son, would be an extension of the brand and he would get baby deals and photo shoots. Doing the shoots together was one of our favourite moments,” Musician Heyz Da Brand affirms.

Despite some celebrities showcasing their babies online, others like Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian have received great offers for brands to use their babies, but they turned them down.

“I’m terrified. And, you know, I think that social media is one of the most important tools if you’re building a brand and to share your life, I think it’s really fun. But also, I didn’t grow up in a world of social media so I don’t want to over expose my children,” Kim responded when asked why her children did not have online profiles, yet she was one of the most followed mothers.

With her child all grown-up, musician Lady B affirms that just because you are a celebrity doesn’t mean that your child will love the Instagram life.

“My daughter is all grown-up and she does not share much of her life online. Back then, we didn’t have vibrant sharing but even if we did, I would have refrained from sharing too much of her life because at the end of the day, her personality might be different from my celebrity personality. That said, even when sharing, parents should put the safety and privacy of their children first and consider future outcomes. It is important.”

Radio personality Tina Kagia says that children must be protected and guarded from the general public because not everyone has best interests for them and friends should not overshare children photos.

“Kids must be guarded fiercely. Also this thing for letting your friends upload your children’s photos. That is an absolute no-go zone for me. I get that we are proud of our kids, but caution must be taken. There are too many nut jobs roaming these Internet streets for you to be pinning your location all the time you post photos with them,” she says.

Talking about the psychological outcome, Dr Lincoln says: “Sharing is a personal decision, but parents should consider whether the information they put out could endanger the child’s identity and secondly, what type of information would children want to see about themselves online at a later date.

 We have seen child stars struggling to grow up with all these celebrity expectations put on them. Social media sharing has the potential to cause similar struggles if not well controlled.”