Mom’s reaction to a stranger recognizing her son in public
For Heidi Anderson, sharing her life online was second nature—until her digital footprint unintentionally became her son’s.
Heidi has been in breakfast radio and reality TV, and she’s a well-known public figure in Perth. An Instagram presence comes with the territory.
But she didn’t realize what that meant for her son, Memphis, until a shopping trip changed everything.
“That moment triggered a shift”
The five-year-old had been with his grandmother at the shops at the time. A man had walked up to them to say hello.
“He simply said, ‘I follow Heidi on Instagram,’ and that was it,” Heidi told Kidspot.
Those five, seemingly innocent, words made her heart sink.
“I wasn’t with Memphis this time. He was out in the world without me, and someone recognized him—not because they knew him, but because they knew me,” she said.
“It was the first time I realized that my digital footprint, the stories I’ve shared, the moments I’ve posted, had unintentionally become his. And the truth? I felt an immense wave of shame.”
She questioned whether she had really thought about what hitting ‘post’ on his photos meant. She wondered if she was truly protecting him in the ways she wanted to.
In the moment, Memphis didn’t think twice about the encounter with the stranger.
“He waved and said hello—he’s a friendly, confident kid,” she explained.
“But for me, that moment triggered a shift. It wasn’t about one friendly stranger; it was about the bigger picture.”
Previously, conversations about boundaries and safety were frequent in their household, but Heidi’s focus had primarily been on those he knew.
“I had focused more on the people in his immediate environment, the ones we know, because statistically, that’s where most harm happens. I hadn’t fully considered the digital aspect of his safety,” she admits.
She had put the online safety chat down as a topic of conversation for when Memphis hit his teenage years. But this experience has taught her that it’s never too early to start.
“Memphis already knows about body autonomy, what ‘no’ means, what safe adults look like, what to do if he feels uncomfortable. But now, we’re also talking about what it means to be seen online, what privacy means, and why some people might recognize him even if he doesn’t know them,” she explains.
“It’s not illegal to be a creep”
Heidi is now sharing her experience to raise awareness around the dangers we may be unknowingly exposing our children to from oversharing online.
She also turned to former police officer Kristi McVee for advice. The child safety expert and ex-detective has 10 years of experience working with parents to keep their children safe.
McVee shared with Kidspot the bone chilling, but correct, sentence one offender told her during an interview – “It’s not illegal to be a creep.”
McVee told Kidspot this week: “It’s not illegal to have non-sexual photos of random kids on their computers, even as a registered sex offender. Police can’t do anything about it.”
She says there are three questions parents must ask themselves before posting any information about their child online:
- Who am I posting this picture of my child for?
- Do my friends or followers pass the ‘dinner table’ test? (If you wouldn’t trust someone to sit at your dinner table, then you shouldn’t share with them photos of your child.)
- Am I concerned about someone using or misusing my children’s images?
“With the ever-evolving and changing landscape of social media and the online world, in my opinion, sharing our kids is risky, and the consequences for the future could be something we don’t even realize yet. Post with caution!” she warns.
For Heidi, knowledge is power, and that’s what she’s urging other parents to embrace.
“I don’t have all the answers, but what I do know is that by being open, by sharing and learning together, we can empower our kids to navigate this world safely—both offline and online,” she encourages.
“And that’s something worth talking about.”
