A woman has been blasted online with claims that she has photoshopped images of her eight-year-old daughter to have an exaggerated hourglass figure.
An initially innocuous Facebook post by a mum showing her three children before they return to school for the new year has now become the centre of a ferocious debate.
The photo was re-shared to a Reddit group where users pointed out the unnamed woman appeared to have digitally edited her daughter's body.
It was alleged that the woman had altered the image of the girl to make her appear more developed for her age.
The initial Facebook post shows three children lined up together, with a caption in which the woman refers to how quickly they are growing up.
It is captioned: “First day of 1st. 4th and 6th grade! How?!”
Then it has been reshared on the Reddit group r/insaneparents with the comment: “This woman constantly photoshops her daughter’s body to look like this. She’s EIGHT.”
A closer look at the photo does suggest as though the daughter has a wavy arm which means that it could have been modified. Some have claimed that the image was altered so that she looks more physically developed than a typical eight-year-old girl.
On the mother’s original Facebook post, other connections have criticised her for editing photos - although she had responded by denying it.
She has denied altering the back to school photo and insistsher daughter “just looks like that.”
But the person who posted the photo on the Reddit site said that the mum deletes any negative comments.
Now the post has been locked by moderators but not before many people have had the chance to criticise what they see as inappropriate behaviour by the mum, with more than 2,000 comments.
“Damn… That’s creepy,” one wrote. “Also her left arm looks too wavy and I can’t ignore it.”
One had even more serious concerns: “I think there may be more to this than just a mother sexualizing her eight-year-old.”
Added another, “That poor girl is going to suffer serious childhood trauma, and have mental and body issues as an adult.”
