'They would hate me one day.' Why Julia Morris has never shared photos of her kids online.

For years, Julia Morris has had a staunch rule when it comes to her children and social media.

Since welcoming her two daughters – Ruby, who was born in 2006 and Sophie, who was born in 2008 – into the world, the comedian and actress has remained committed to keeping photos of her children off social media.

Likewise, the 51-year-old has never published or sold photos of her two children to the media.

Watch the trailer for the upcoming season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! below. Post continues after video.

Speaking to Mamamia ahead of the release of the 2020 season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, Morris explained why you won’t see any photos of her two children on her Instagram page.

“I just feel like my children’s privacy is not mine to sell or give away,” the mum-of-two explained.

“Any other parents making that decision, that is completely up to them and I respect that. But I don’t want anyone approaching my children when I’m not around because they know their faces,” she added.

“I think it comes under a really weird umbrella of ‘Stranger Danger’ when someone knows a child, knows what they look like, knows where to find them, knows what school they go to.

“It’s an awful lot of information to put out there about the things most precious to you.”

Although Morris is committed to keeping her kids off social media for now, it’s not always easy.

“When things are really crazy, cute, amazing, funny or whatever, it’s hard not to post them and share them. So it’s taken some real effort on my part,” the actress said.

“It’s hard to talk about it without disrespecting other people’s opinions – and I don’t want to do that – but I can’t help but think that I would be posting [photos of my kids] as part of my ego. Like look at these humans I created. Look at this funny thing that they did. I kind of think that would be the motivation for me posting so that’s why I don’t.”

 

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Had a girls’ getaway on the weekend to Ballarat with my daughter. Been hanging to stay at @gorgicoghlan ‘s @theprovincialballarat so booked in & went. It was more glorious that I could ever have imagined. We had more fun than I can get in to a post. Ballarat is so awesome & we laughed & ate till it was time to come home. @eclectic_tastes_ballarat was my culinary highlight, meeting koalas @ballaratwildlifepark was a proper life highlight and the super fun @sovereignhill never disappoints. None of this is ‘spon’… as in -paid my way but still reeling from the truly superb hospitality everywhere we went. Can’t wait to return. All my love, Travellin’ Jmo xxxxxx

A post shared by Julia Morris (@ladyjuliamorris) on Oct 3, 2019 at 6:06pm PDT

Despite Morris’ own social media blackout on her children, the comedian doesn’t mind if her friends do the opposite with their own kids. In fact, she loves seeing other people’s kids on Instagram.

“So many of my closest friends do post [photos of their children]. I absolutely love seeing their children grow up if I’m not getting to see them as often. It’s great to see their beautiful faces,” Morris said.

“But I just can’t get over the line in my own head that they are going to hate me one day for posting them.”

In the years to come, Morris is open to allowing her children to join social media – but only when they’re ready.

“When my girls are ready and I feel like they have a handle on what it’s like to go out on social media, I will be more than happy to put them out there,” she explained.

“But in the meantime, they are living an incredibly normal, glorious, heavenly life – they’re not being bullied because their parents are on the television or their parents are known.”

Although Morris has kept photos of her children offline, a photograph of her children at a water park was once printed on the front cover of a magazine.

Speaking to Mamamia’s No Filter podcast back in 2016, the comedian shared there were two occasions in Africa where she woke up to text messages alerting her that her children were in a magazine.

Listen to Mamamia’s podcast No Filter, where host Mia Freedman interviewed Julia Morris in 2016 about miscarriage, magazines and the paparazzi. Post continues below.

“The day before we left for Africa, we went to a water park in Geelong. [In the photos], I’m in my bikini bottoms but the thing that really gave me the dirts is that my children are in their bathing suits,” she told host Mia Freedman.

Speaking to Mamamia, Morris reflected on the incident.

“I went to speak to a lawyer about it [at the time] and they said you can photograph a child at any time and print it anywhere you like, without permission – provided it’s not for sexual reasons. That’s how the law stands in our country at the moment,” Morris explained.

“I don’t understand how my child’s upper thigh is of any interest to a magazine reading community,” she added.

“When that happened to the children and my eldest would have been around seven or eight years old at the time, she asked me: ‘Why Mum? Why? Why did they put my body on that magazine?’

“I said ‘I know darling, I don’t have an answer for that.’ Luckily, it hasn’t happened since. Now, more than ever, as they are starting their teenage years, I don’t need that sort of pressure on them.”

Feature Image: Getty.

What do you think about sharing photos of children on social media? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! premieres on January 5, 2020, at 7.30pm on Channel 10.

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