You know what they say when you make assumptions…
Being in the public eye comes with the never-ending two cents from people on the internet who think they’re entitled to every part of celebrities’ lives. While it may seem like a “woe is me” problem for people looking in from an outside view, I could see how it would get frustrating constantly having your comment section being filled with people making conclusions about your personal life.
A prime example being Katie “KT” Smith, Morgan Wallen’s Ex-fiance and baby mama to their five-year-old son, Indigo. After the birth of their son in July 2020, KT quickly gained over 100,000 followers, catapulting her “influencer” career full-time.
While being the country superstar’s ex certainly comes with its perks of his millions of fans constantly keeping up with the Florida-native’s life online, it also comes with a number of deranged, over-involved fans. Most recently being one user who commented underneath a TikTok post of KT dancing with her son, captioned, “sometimes ya just gotta hit em with the midday dance party.”
Despite having his own dedicated Instagram page up until the age of two, as her son gets older, KT has since chosen not to show his face on social media, with this post continuing the pattern by only displaying the back of his head. One woman commented underneath saying, “So cute. I wish his face could be shown every now and then, like when he was a baby, but I understand why it’s not.”
Now, while I get the curiosity to some extent, to comment saying you wish you could see the face of a stranger’s child is just kind of creepy. She continues calling the filming angle a “good workaround,” assuming that KT is following the rules of custody stipulations where you’re “not allowed to show child’s face on social media platforms.”
KT then responded, setting the record straight that the choice has nothing to do with custody violations, noting, “It has nothing to do with custody. We’ve never been to court.” Adding, “It has everything to do with people using his pictures/videos and keeping him safe. People don’t know what has happened behind the scenes.”
Luckily, the user was very understanding in her response back, apologizing for the assumption and sending kudos, “You’re doing a great job raising and protecting him in the crazy world we live in. I’m a mom of two around the same age, so I know how hard being a mom is but can’t imagine the added anxiety of the world trying to exploit my baby.” She hilariously added, “There wouldn’t be a Lexapro dose high enough for me.” So at least the woman ended up being considerate in the end.
However, if there’s one trend I can get behind on the internet, it’s people shielding their underage kids from constantly being blasted online. While I wish social media was still considered a safe place to share your favorite family photos and document every stage of your babies’ lives, with the growing amount of mutated AI content and creepy people, it’s just not worth it in my opinion— especially for public figures.
Apparently there’s even a new term for the trend: ‘sharenting,’ aka “posting one’s children’s photos, videos, or other personal details online.” One study from 2018 even projected that by 2030, “sharenting could represent two-thirds of identity fraud affecting young people.”
Likewise, beyond the fact that it creates an unwanted digital footprint for children, there’s also the growing risk of AI Deepfakes and the fact that people on the internet are just downright weird. So, kudos to KT for looking out for her little one (even though, unfortunately, as Morgan Wallen’s kid, he’s bound to face the limelight at some point).