Someone Created A Fake Account of My 1 Year Old and Instagram Took Its Time To Remove The Account

PART TWO- ACCOUNT WAS REMOVED AROUND 4:30 PM ON DAY 6 OF REPORTING:
Hi everyone! I am updating the blog post now that the fake account created of my (then) infant daughter has been removed. I am horrified that it took so long and so much effort to get this removed. I am sure that there were close to 1,000 or more reports on the account, and that is what finally got it removed, though I cannot be sure. IG/FaceBook did not notify me when it was removed. I was checking to see if it was gone every few minutes for about 6 days straight.

My hope for this blog post is that it can be of some help to other parents who have to go through something like this since there are NO resources on the Internet. I am still shocked that I could only find one other article. If you are going through something similar, please reach out via my business email and I will try to give you some tips. I will not shame you for posting innocent pictures of your munchkins enjoying life on social media. What is disgusting is that parents have to live in fear that someone may take their photos and do something sketchy with them.

With that being said, here are some of the steps I took yesterday and today, in addition to the steps I took below. I will include screenshots of emails I received back from Instagram/FaceBook:

-I reached out to “product owners” on LinkedIn.
-I reached out to someone who is very “skilled” at “tech” things who said they could remove it if I paid them (I did not trust this so I did not go this route as I did not want to get scammed).
-I talked with a private investigator who gave me some ideas for action.
-I looked for lawyers who were willing to help.
-I spoke with a few individuals who work in law enforcement about their thoughts on the whole thing. Both did not think that the police would be able to help me.
-I sought out online child advocates via social media platforms and wrote to them.
-A friend who is verified on IG and Tik Tok with a large, active following offered to ask his followers for help (the account was removed before we took this step).
-I completed all the steps of filing for privacy violation, including submitting copies of my child’s birth certificate, my driver’s license, and my partner’s (my daughter’s father’s) driver’s license.
-I reported the account as an impersonation of my child using this form: https://help.instagram.com/contact/636276399721841

What happened when I filed for the privacy violation:
I don’t know. I am not sure if this is why the account was removed. Maybe it was. It asked me to answer a few questions and submit a link to each and every photo on the account. I wrote out a description stating that these photos/videos were of my daughter and were screen-shotted and screen-recorded off of my personal Insta account. I then submitted a copy of my birth certificate, copies of both my driver’s license and my daughter’s father’s driver’s license, and a photo of my daughter’s face next to her birth certificate, with my hand in the photo (very important apparently). I did not get another email about this after I submitted this information. It did have a ticket number with “support,” whatever/whoever “support” is, and that made me hopeful. Again, though. I did not get an answer as to whether or not the information was verified and it was removed because of my privacy violation report.

What happened when I found a different form for reporting impersonation and filled that out: Someone sent me the link to an “impersonation report form” that I was not coming up for me when I was searching for it. This one required a form of ID on the form (I linked it two paragraphs up). This made me so frustrated. Here are the requirements for the photo(s) you must submit along with the form (I took this from an email I got from FaceBook/IG):
”- Includes both your hand that's holding your ID and your entire face
- Clearly shows your face in both the photo and the ID
- Is well-lit, and is not too small, dark or blurry
- Is attached to your reply as a JPEG file”

I did all of this. All of it. And since my toddler could not hold her own birth certificate up for the photo because she tried to rip it up or eat it every time I put it near her, I had to sit her in her high chair with a pile of shredded cheese in front of her to get the photo needed. I submitted our photos three times and got the same email back from FaceBook/IG asking me to “please submit the correct photos.” After the third submission, I got this email back:

I was livid. I had submitted the photos exactly as they had asked, and my forms of ID were not acceptable? I submitted our driver’s licenses and my daughter’s birth certificate. Both of which are listed as acceptable forms of identification. I gave up on reporting it as an impersonation after this, posted this screenshot to my IG story, and called on my following (18.4k) to please continue to report the account and flag all of the photos.

A few hours later, I decided to go on a walk outside with my dogs to clear my head as crying in the bathtub out of frustration was not doing me any good. I left my phone at home, walked my dogs for about 20 minutes, and came back home. When I checked my phone, the account was gone. My partner saw it at the same time as me. I called my mom and cried. And I made my kid dinner and put her to bed. And then I cried some more, messaged friends, family, and followers to thank them for all of their efforts, and sat down to update this blog post.

I am so thankful that all of this is over. The night before, a few trolls found the account and began to harass my partner and I, as well as my friends, publicly in the comments section of photos on the account. I was so disturbed that these individuals were deriving pleasure from tormenting a hurting family. I am so glad that we got it removed in time, before more found the account and could harass us more. I guess that is the downside to having to have a ton of reports in order to get an account taken down. You must share your situation with A LOT of people, and some of the people you story reaches will be absolute pieces of dog crap.

I have since removed photos of my daughter from my account to protect her from other sick individuals. I really hope that this blog post helps someone. I am really looking forward to sleeping tonight as I have not really slept in days now. I treated getting this account removed like a full time job and did not work while I was working on this. I don’t even want to think about how much time I put into this. Too much. These social media platforms should have better systems in place for protecting children and taking care of these issues promptly. This account should not have been allowed to exist in the first place. My thoughts now? If a parent wants to create a social media account for their child, they should have to upload their government issued ID and go through a verification process BEFORE the account is allowed online. Why is this not a thing? Time? Money? Surely these large companies can afford to hire someone to check ID’s if it means protecting children. Right?

Please reach out with questions and I will see if I can help.

-Sincerely,

A very persistent parent, fierce mom, and hardworking model.

ORIGINAL BLOG POST TEXT: I am so sad and disappointed that I even have to write a blog post like this, in an attempt to get Instagram’s attention so that this fake account created of my one year old daughter without my knowledge or permission may get removed. I am appalled at the steps I have had to take to try to get the fake account deleted.

I was looking for a new username to which I could post my photography work to on December 30th, and searched my daughter’s name on Instagram. I was appalled to find an account under her name with MY photos of her that I did not create. Each photo has its own creepy caption, written from my daughter’s perspective. The account made its first post on April 2nd. I am sad that I did not find this account sooner. Some of the photos are from my Instagram feed. Other were screen-shotted and screen-recorded/downloaded from my Instagram story.

I have reported the account for impersonation.
I have reported the account for being under 13.
I have reported the account for privacy violation.
I have had friends, family, and followers report the account and each individual photo on the account hundreds of times now.
I have had friends, family, and followers comment on the posts asking Instagram to please remove the account.
I have messaged the account creator asking them to please remove the account. They have not read the message or replied.
I have posted in FaceBook groups asking for help.
I have contacted multiple sex trafficking hotlines, who say that they cannot help me because the photos this person of my child were not nude.
I filed a report under IC3.
I filed a report with the only E Safety Commissioner I could find, which is in Australia.
I have created Tik Tok’s trying to get Instagram’s attention.
I have tweeted at Instagram asking for them to remove the account.
I have posted on Linkedin, and tried to find Instagram employees who could help, to no avail.

I am frustrated. I am angry. It is shocking to me that Instagram is so strict on its Terms Of Service for some things, but when a child is underage, they apparently do not care, even though their Terms Of Service state that you must be over 13 years of age to have an account on the app.

Now… before the Karen’s come after me for posting photos of my child online… have you met me? My entire brand has revolved around dealing with a lifelong eating disorder, and making it through a pregnancy and creating a child is huge for me. My branding is being a working mom, and showing other moms that they can run their own business managing themselves while still taking care of their kids. I am proud of my daughter and love to show her off. She has a positive energy that is unmatched. I loved sharing that with my friends and followers. Now I am terrified to post photos of her publicly as I am afraid of where they end up. I should be able to share photos of my adorable little light without fear that some creep is going to take them and do something strange with them. This feels violating.

I am also writing this because I was only able to find ONE other article online about someone who had to deal with trying to get Instagram to remove an account that someone made impersonating their child (and this person was located in Australia). If the post does end up getting removed, I will update this blog post with (hopefully) helpful information that others can use if they end up in the same situation.

Do better, Instagram. Why is this taking so long? Why are you ignoring all of the reports? Why is protecting children not a priority for you? And if this does end up getting in front of someone who works for Instagram, please contact me so that we can get this account removed and I can sleep at night.

Sincerely,

One very upset, tired mom.