'So mature for her age': Vile comments on 4yo's videos sends urgent message to parents

Next time you think that posting that cute clip of your kid is harmless - think of Wren.

I will never shame a mum for how they choose to parent.

Wanna give your kid an iPad, go for it.

Want your son to be vegan, here’s some tofu.

If you want to call your child Methamphetamine Rules, all I can say is good luck finding your kid’s name on a keyring. 

But when I came across the TikTok account, @wren.eleanor a toddler with over 17 million followers, I was pretty horrified- and that’s putting it mildly.

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Focusing on the positive

A few years back, I read a book called Human Kind by Rutger Bregman. 

It is essentially a nonfiction exploration of why humans aren’t inherently bad, and despite being conditioned to believe we are, it simply isn’t true.

I read this book having just gotten married and thinking of starting a family, so I needed to be more “glass half full” and not be totally terrified about raising a child in the world we live in.

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Wren and her mum, Jacquelyn. Source: Instagram

It’s not the majority, but…

While most of us are good, decent and honest people, unfortunately, this isn’t the case for everyone.

As a mum to a beautiful 15-month-old daughter, it makes me sick to my stomach to think about some of the awful atrocities being committed to minors around the world.

According to Brave Hearts, a study conducted in Australia revealed alarming statistics regarding online predators and their potential danger to children. 

Approximately 9% of Australian men have engaged in sexually offensive behaviour against children, which includes activities such as viewing pornographic material involving individuals under 18, participating in flirtatious or sexual online conversations with minors, engaging in sexual webcam interactions with individuals under 18, paying for online sexual interactions with minors, and having sex or sexual contact with a person below 18 while being over 18 years old.

What’s even worse (yep, it gets worse) is the finding that about 5% of men who have sexually offended against children report having sexual feelings towards minors. 

These individuals with sexual feelings towards children stand out from those without such feelings in several ways:

• They are more likely to be married.
• They are almost three times more likely to work with children.
• They tend to have a higher income.
• They are over four times more likely to engage in weekly binge drinking.
• They report approximately twice the rate of adverse childhood experiences.
• They are more than 25 times more likely to hold attitudes conducive to online child sex offending.
• They use the internet more frequently.
• They are much more active on social media.
• They are over 11 times more likely to watch violent pornography (Salter, Woodlock, Whitten, et al., 2023).

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Knowing all that…

With all that information, it blows my mind there’s a mum who would knowingly post suggestive content about her toddler for ‘these’ people to access.

A quick scroll of Wren’s account showcased a beautiful little girl eating a sushi roll, shaking her hips and blowing a kiss, and a video of Wren asking repeatedly for a ‘sucker’ lollypop- which has been saved by TikTok users over 55,000 times.

Similarly, a video of Wren eating a hog dog at a local fair has been saved 374,000 times.

Let that sink in.

Over 400,000 individual accounts have saved videos of a toddler saying the word “I want sucker” over and over again or eating a hot dog.

TikTok user and mum @justlivingmyjesslife did her own investigation and shared some pretty vile information on how people interacted with the account.

Searches containing Wren’s name suggested pretty explicit results, including “Wren Pickle” and “Wren scandalous outfits”. 

She also drew attention to some of the “disgusting comments” that were left on Wren’s account before her mum turned off the comments.

One comment that stood out to Jess was one comment left by a man who wrote, “She is so mature for her age”.

An adult wrote that about a 4-year-old girl- I feel ill.

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A confronting still from one of Wren's many TikToks. Source: TikTok

The New York Times investigates

An article published by The New York Times revealed, “One calculation performed by an audience demographics firm found 32 million connections to male followers among the 5,000 accounts examined.” 

It was also discovered that “Suggestive posts are more likely to receive “likes” and comments,” with some male followers using flattering, bullying or blackmail tactics to get “racier images”.

The investigation also “monitored separate exchanges on Telegram, the messaging app, where men openly fantasise about abusing the children they follow on Instagram and extol the platform for making the images so readily available.”

“It’s like a candy store 😍😍😍,” one member wrote. 

“God bless instamoms 🙌,” wrote another.

Instagram’s parent company, Meta, found that “500,000 child Instagram accounts had “inappropriate” interactions every day”. 

Keeping your kids safe online

There are a number of ways you can keep your kids safe online, and these include:

1. Adjust the privacy settings on your child's social media accounts to prioritise their online safety. 
2. To safeguard against potential online predators, make sure your kids' profiles are set to private, limit friend requests to known contacts, and restrict the sharing of personal information.
3. Establish a foundation of trust with your children, encouraging open conversations about their online experiences. Empower them to share any unsettling encounters and reassure them that you're there to support and guide them in navigating the online world safely.
4. Equip your children with the knowledge to recognise signs of predatory behaviour online. 
5. Educate them on the importance of reporting any suspicious activity and emphasise that seeking your help is crucial in handling such situations.
6. Actively supervise your child's online activities by setting clear guidelines for screen time and consistently monitoring their interactions. 
7. Keep devices in communal areas to easily oversee their online presence and ensure responsible use.
8. Stay up-to-date with social media platforms and emerging digital trends, particularly those related to online safety. 

Most importantly, be mindful of what you post about your kids on your own accounts, too.

Based on those worrying stats mentioned above, unfortunately, you never know if one of your friends on social media falls into that percentage.

Now, back to remembering not ALL people are bad and the world is a good place.

…Maybe it’s time to reread that book!

Originally published as 'So mature for her age': Vile comments on 4yo's videos sends urgent message to parents