Why Podcaster Bobbi Althoff Keeps Kids Off Social Media: ‘Can’t Take it Back’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Podcast host Bobbi Althoff recently shared why she keeps photos of her daughters’ faces off social media.
“I feel like it started for so many reasons. One was that when you post your kids online, people will give a lot of opinions about your kids,” Althoff told PEOPLE on April 17. “I didn’t love that.”
“Once you do it, you can’t take it back,” the mom of Isla, 22 months, and Luca, 3, said about sharing photos online. “And I learned that with my first daughter. I posted her early on and I can’t take those pictures back.”
The 26-year-old struggles with guilt about her past parenting mistakes.
“They live on the internet forever. And sometimes I feel bad because I’m like you were my trial child and I posted. And then her sister is not on the internet,” she said.
Althoff still posts photos of her daughters on Instagram, but she obscures their faces.
“…But also, I didn’t want to make my kids’ Google search history myself,” Althoff continued. “That’s crazy.”
She doesn’t want who she is as a celebrity podcast host to influence who her children become.
“I want them to have their own blank slate to kind of create their own thing,” Althoff said. “It’s really nice not having them online because no one recognizes them.”
“If my kids are at the park, without me, no one’s going to recognize them. They’re fine,” she explained. “And I feel safe about it.”
Her children also don’t know that she’s famous.
“And nobody gets to have an opinion about my kids. They get to do their own thing. And this is my own thing,” Althoff said.
Althoff wants her daughters to stay off social media until they’re fully developed adults.
“When they’re older, when they’re teenagers, but not even,” she said. “I feel like if I had it my way and they made the decision for themselves, I feel like they should do it when they’re like 25 and then they’re fully smart.”
Althoff often refers to her daughters on her podcast as “Concrete” and “Richard” to keep their identities private.
Movieguide® reported on HGTV’s Erin and Ben Napier, who also do not show their children’s faces on social media:
Napier and her husband, Ben, also don’t share photos of their daughters on social media.
“It’s our job to build a hedge of protection around their heart until they’re strong enough to fight that battle,” she told PEOPLE previously.
Rather than have her kids glued to screens, Napier wants them to learn about themselves and the real world.
