Roxy Jacenko has been busy defending her four-year-old daughter Pixie Curtis’s Instagram account.
Pixie’s account (which has has over 109,000 followers and is used for paid advertising) has been in the spotlight this week following the discovery of “lewd and explicit” fake pictures of the child that were being circulated among fashion industry figures. The images have now been reported to Rose Bay Police station.
Speaking on The Project Jacenko said that she “will not live [her] life as a recluse simply because three men chose to exploit images of her family ‘for their own humour and disgusting entertainment.”
The 35 year old PR professional confirmed that she knows who is behind the fake pictures, and says that they are “associates”, however she told the Project that while she will not name them.
But Project co-host Waleed Aly was keen to address a common criticism – has Jacenko turned Pixie into a commodity by sharing photos of her so prolifically on line?
Jacenko told panel that it is something everyone has an opinion on.
“For me, I’m very, very confident in the way that she is on social media in the sense of, I don’t put pictures of her in the bath with no clothes on.
“Every picture that she has on her Instagram is doing child-like things – at the park, baking a cake with her brother, those kind of child-like, four-year-old things.”
She continued: “Is there something wrong with that? Does it make it right these people – who are nothing more than paedophiles – can utilise those pictures in happy scenarios and child-like scenarios and use them for their own humour and disgusting entertainment?”
Explaining how the business model for Pixie evolved, Jacenko told the Project her daughter’s Instagram began as “something for fun” to thank people who sent Pixie gifts.
“If someone sent her a beautiful dress. It was a shout-out thank you for the dress,” she said.
Pixie’s social media account has since gone on to host paid-for advertisements and promote Pixie’s own fashion label, Pixie’s Bows.
“I will not lie and say it’s not become a commercial asset. Yes, it has,” Jacenko said.
Jacenko added that she doesn’t profit from Pixie’s account and that it is a trust fund for the child.
Following the interview, The Project panel opened up a discussion about online privacy for children.
Mia Freedman, 44, co-founder of Mamamia, commented: “The fact of the matter is, when you post photos of your kids online – as we have all had to make those decisions whether we do or not – you lose control of what happens to those photos.”
Ali added: “We have battled with that exactly. We made the decision never to do it for those sort of reasons.”
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