An Australian fitness influencer has received a barrage of negative feedback after blurring her son’s face in a video.
Steph Claire Smith took to Instagram last week to share a sweet clip from a family outing at a Monster Truck show.
Smith, 30, who shares fitness and diet tips as well as motherhood updates, has previously shown her three-year-old son Harvey’s face but decided she would hide his identity from now on.
Some fans of KIC co-founder found her sudden decision questionable.
‘Now! You’re blocking his face?! Glad he had fun! Looks great!’ wrote one commenter.
‘Oh my God. No, that’s it, I’m done. A blurry face did it for me,” wrote another.
“We’ve seen it a million times,” replied a third. “That’s why it’s strange.”
Shortly after these comments were posted, Steph took to her Instagram Stories to explain why she started pixelating her son’s face, saying she was so tired of the “judgment.”
Influencer Steph Claire Smith (pictured) has received a barrage of negative comments after she blurred out her son’s face in an Instagram video, having previously featured the boy on her social media
Shortly after these comments were posted, Steph took to her Instagram Stories to explain why she was now pixelating her son’s face and lashed out at detractors who said she was “so sick of the judgement.”
“I can’t believe I’m even taking the time to talk about this,” she began in the now expired video.
“But honestly, some people… I’ve talked about this before in my stories and on my podcast.”
Steph said young Harvey was “at an age where he wasn’t always in our care and he looked like a little boy.”
Steph claimed that young Harvey was “at an age where he’s not always in our care and he looks like a little boy” and that he is much more relatable now that he has matured.
“He’s a lot more recognizable,” the influencer said.
Steph, who has more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram, added that strangers were coming to the family who already knew Harvey’s name, which confused the youngster.
She said she and her husband Josh Miller decided to hide the boy’s face as he was about to leave for school.
“It absolutely baffles me how people feel like they can absolutely influence your life and your choices,” Steph lamented in the Instagram video.
“I understand there are pictures and things like that of him up there from the past. It was not our intention to completely erase it from the internet.
“It was to keep him from putting anything up from now on as he grows up because he looks like a little boy.”