'It was like they were playing Barbie dolls... but the dolls were my kids'

"It might sound dramatic, until it's your kid. It scared the s*** out of me and you will never see my kid's faces online again." 

Source: Meredith Steele

If you’re a parent, chances are your phone camera roll consists of thousands of sweet photos of your kids.

So it’s natural to want to share some of those with family and friends on social media.

But a mum-of-two has warned about posting pics online after a terrifying phenomenon where her children were “digitally kidnapped” by a stranger.

Meredith Steele, 35, admits that she used to share lots of images of her children on Instagram and “had no concept of internet safety at all”.

“When my account blew up, I allowed people to follow my personal Instagram which was covered in photos of my family,” Meredith shared in her TikTok video.

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A stranger used the images of Meredith's family to create fake names and profiles. Source: Meredith Steele

"They were playing barbies - and my kids were the dolls" 

But one night after posting photos to Instagram if being out to dinner with her family, Meredith received a call from her friend who worked at the restaurant.

“She said, ‘hey, have you seen this Instagram page?’” the mum-of-two explains.

“Someone had built a page with thousands of followers pretending to be me and my family with new identities and new names and new lives and they had tagged the restaurant.”

Meredith said the person, who has never made themselves known to her, had created their own fictional family using her images.

“They had made their own captions and made their own lives. It was like they were playing with Barbie dolls... but the dolls were my kids,” she said of the frightening situation. 

“Mummy blog culture normalises oversharing intimate personal details of your kids and they aren’t old enough to agree or disagree with it.”

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Meredith urged people to stop posting their children's photos online. Source: TikTok/@babiesofsteele

"Do not post your children online!" 

Meredith said the encounter has completely changed the way she thinks about sharing her children on social media and they have been completely removed from her accounts.

“Some people call it role-playing, it’s also known as digital kidnapping and it might sound dramatic... until it’s your kid,” she said.

“It scared the s**t out of me - and you will never see my kids’ faces on the internet again.

“Protect your child’s digital footprint and do not post photos of them online.”

Meredith's family photos were taken and used by a stranger. Source: Instagram

Originally published as 'It was like they were playing Barbie dolls... but the dolls were my kids'