Why these mums are campaigning to have their nude photos online.

Is motherhood really being censored here? Meet the women who say “yes”.

Meet the mothers taking on the social media giants.

Since June 2013, Ashlee Wells Jackson and partner Laura Weetzie have been on a mission to celebrate real mums’ bodies and the way they’re represented in the media. Calling the mission 4th Trimester Bodies Project.

Their mission includes posting beautiful photos of mums’ bodies to social media. In the 13 months they’ve been doing it, Ashlee’s Instagram account has been shut down 9 times. Facebook has locked her out for a total of 100 days. And if the social media account hasn’t been banned, individual photos of mums posing in underwear have been flagged and removed.

And now Ashlee is leading a new campaign: #StopCensoringMotherhood.

Ashlee told Huffington Post that the images that get shut down are in 3 categories: breastfeeding, mums wearing underwear (no nipples showing) and very young kids without clothing.

Many mums have had images banned and taken to social media and blogs to complain – calling the images innocent or “real” and reminding those social media companies that they have no problem with celebrities’ bums being left up there.

But on those policies, social media sites are quite clear. On Facebook, breastfeeding photos are fine as long as there is no nipple showing – as is a woman in bra and underwear. But child nudity of any kind is not permitted.

And on Instagram, accounts sharing nudity or “mature content” will be shut down.

Ashlee asks whether they should be changed. She said, “I think that saying all child nudity is not allowed because it’s pornography is ridiculous, because it’s not. I think that sexualises things that don’t need to be.”

She also argues that if social media have rules, they have to be across the board, noting that there are multiple images of erotic images that aren’t banned.

Plenty of mums are getting behind Ashlee’s campaign, uploading photos of themselves with the tag #StopCensoringMotherhood.

But we can’t help but think that just as much as we hate it when Mum brings out the naked bath photos of us during family gatherings, surely our kids would appreciate their nudity being left out of this battle?

Where do you stand? Are the guidelines there to protect children, or are they too strict? 

CLICK THROUGH the gallery to see the photos that social media banned. We have made the decision to show some undressed children, as we often have before, but we have used blurring to cover any nudity.

Want more? Try:

The photo that got this mum banned from Instagram.

So many parents are getting reported for doing this on Facebook. This mum’s the latest.