While many have celebrated the news, no one is more optimistic about Counting On‘s cancelation than Amy Duggar.
In the wake of Josh Duggar’s arrest and the disgusting charges against him, she has been much more outspoken than her cousins.
Thinking about how disgusting Josh’s case is has been a disturbing ordeal for everyone.
In light of that, Amy admits that she’s changing how she uses social media to keep her son safe.
Many of us enjoyed the long weekend, even if all that we did with it was use it to sleep in.
Amy Duggar is no exception, and neither was her precious toddler.
The Duggar cousin shared a photo of her 21-month-old son.
In the photo, Daxton Ryan is sitting in swimclothes while perched upon a pool inflatable.
He is adorably wearing a hat that reads "Best Kid Ever."
Amy captioned the pic: "Mom, where did the weekend go??"
Amy soon edited the photo, however, adding a massive blue heart emoji.
The emoji covered her toddler son’s torso.
While most of us didn’t think twice about the original image, Amy’s explanation for the change made an alarming amount of sense.
"I posted the unedited version," Amy wrote in an edit to her caption.
"And then," she admitted, "I thought to myself ‘is that too much skin?’"
"He’s just shirtless," Amy characterized her son’s attire.
"And then I thought," Amy explained, "you never know who is seeing this picture."
"And what they are thinking," she added.
"And now," Amy vowed, "I’m going to be extra careful and protect him!"
Amy has some advice for other parents who, very naturally, love to share what their kids are up to.
"I encourage all parents to be very careful on what we post from now on," she reflected.
Understanding the depravity of the content that Josh is accused of accessing was a rude awakening.
"I now have a new set of eyes," Amy admitted.
"And," she acknowledged, "I’m more of aware of how someone can use anything for evil."
"It’s the sad truth, but something worth sharing for sure," Amy expressed.
"Love y’all!" Amy wrote to her many fans and followers.
"And well… we just miss the weekend," she added.
Amy clarified: "We spent it eating yummy BBQ and tons of swimming!"
We would not normally say this about recommendations from the Duggar family, but Amy is delivering some very good advice.
There are sexual predators in our world.
Most don’t have secret child-dungeons and wouldn’t make for very compelling conspiracy theories, because they just look and act like regular people.
And yes, they can and will sexualize innocuous images of children on social media.
They do not have to be swimsuit photos or dance photos or gymnastics pics or anything else obvious.
But it’s safe to say that if someone is viewing children as sex objects, they will seek out more skin.
Ugh, I feel gross just writing that, but it needs to be acknowledged.
Now, some parents go overboard when it comes to "protecting" their kids from being viewed in this way.
If an adult is perving on a teenage girl’s bare arms or whatever, that’s always his fault.
But Amy isn’t repeating the mistakes that her cult-member relatives make when they force children to wear baggy, often hideous clothing.
Amy isn’t saying that little children are responsible for how adult men (or women) view them.
And, notably, she is also not making her son swim with a shirt on.
Instead, Amy is making decisions about which photos she, as a parent and as a reasonably famous person, shares.
There is a huge difference between a teen sharing their own Instagram-appropriate photos to be viewed by peers vs a parent sharing pics of their kid.
They’re intended for different audiences. Also, Daxton won’t be old enough for social media for well over a decade.
When Daxton is 15, if he wants to upload flattering photos of himself for his peers to see, that would be a different conversation.
It would then, at that time, be wrong for Amy to to overboard in censoring what he shares of himself so long as it is legal and permitted content.
But Amy isn’t making her son dress differently. He’s a toddler, and she’s shielding him from monsters like her cousin.