The dark side of Australia’s child influencer industry: Social media star reveals how she found her son on an adoption site after posting pictures of him online

The mother of a popular young social media star has lifted the lid on the dark side of being a child influencer.

Nina Gonthier’s four-year-old son Jerome has more than 97,000 followers on his Instagram account, which is run by his mother and earns “a few thousand a year.”

His page contains more than 900 photos, including close-ups of his face, images of him modeling new clothes, and photos from various outings.

But Nina has revealed how shocked she was when she discovered her son’s photos were being used by fake accounts, including an adoption website.

“As a mother, I believe in doing everything possible to protect him and do everything safely,” she told ABC’s Four Corners.

“I don’t post when they are topless, or in a diaper where images can be edited, or take photos of certain streets where you could share a certain location.”

She explained that’s why she was stunned when she discovered that other accounts had stolen the photos and decided to contact them.

‘[It was] horrible. Especially when they challenge me by saying ‘he’s my child’ while he’s sitting next to me. What do they get out of it? It’s frustrating, but there’s really not much I can do,” she explained.

However, Nina’s heart sank when she was informed about a US adoption agency website using her son’s images.

Jerome has more than 97,000 followers on his Instagram account, which is run by his mother and earns “a few thousand a year”

Nina’s heart sank when she was informed about an American adoption agency website using her son’s images

‘I felt my heart sink. To be honest, I almost started crying, I got goosebumps all over my body, how did it get to this point?’ she said.

‘I felt terrible, as a mother you want to protect your child and I felt like I had no control over that anymore.’

She said the experience was a “big learning curve,” but she has no plans to shut down her son’s account.

“I love it, he loves it and I think it’s up to him whether he wants to continue with it, and I’m being extremely cautious and protective of him right now,” she said.

She said the experience was a “big learning curve,” but she has no plans to shut down her son’s account

The mother of 10-year-old Ava also revealed the downsides of her daughter’s social media account on the show.

Ava has 14,000 followers on Instagram and makes about $500 from deals every month.

However, her mother Zoe admitted that she had to delete sexually explicit comments on messages and explicit images sent via direct messages.

“The first time I ever got one I felt nauseous, really sick,” she said.

Zoe explained that Ava likes influencing because she finds reading and writing difficult and it has ‘boosted her confidence’.

She said she will continue to support her daughter’s page and follow the posts.

‘She could be anywhere, on social media or off, and there could be pedophiles. It happens in schools, it happens everywhere,” Zoe said.

The mother of 10-year-old influencer Ava also revealed how to delete sexually explicit comments on her posts, as well as explicit images sent via direct message

Bobbi, a child influencer from Queensland who is now 15, also had a similar experience when her page received sexual comments from men.

Her mother, Kym, started Bobbi’s account when she was seven to promote her dancing talents and she gained 250,000 followers.

But Kym had to spend several hours every day deleting comments and blocking people.

She also noticed that several fake accounts had been created and tried to contact Instagram to have them removed.

But Kym woke up one day to find that Bobbi’s real account had been deleted by Instagram.

“That was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ That’s her whole career and they just wiped it out,” she said.