When someone initially showed me this, I thought it was a fake profile and a scam, like the many fake and scammy profiles you find on social media.
However, it is actually authentic. The Minister for Equality, Rosianne Cutajar—or rather, Yorgen Fenech’s ex-girlfriend, the Labour MP who was investigated for fraud and corruption—is actually selling the services of her three-year-old child as a model. The Labour Minister is asking for solicitations for promotional adverts in which her daughter can be used in exchange for money.
We usually censor children’s faces when posting their images on our website. We do this to protect children, given that there are a lot of bad actors online who continuously exploit images of children for nefarious purposes. However, the images that Rosianne Cutajar posted herself are uncensored and provide a full glimpse of her and her child.
This is problematic because, in Europe, there is currently a massive movement to encourage children to stay offline. Social media bans have been introduced in the UK, Greece, Denmark and France. The social media ban for teenagers and children was also discussed in Malta, and there seems to be widespread support for it. The Minister herself even said she wanted to discuss it.
However, even before putting the debate forward for an official consultation that leads to a white paper or a draft law, the Minister has already taken a side in this debate by being part of the crowd that publicly uses their children for social media profits. What is problematic is that, as a Minister and a person of influence, she is implicitly pushing the side of the debate that finds it agreeable for children to be on social media, apart from pushing the idea that it is OK to help our children become social media stars at a very young age—even when they cannot yet read or write, or understand their surroundings.
The debate is already starting with a predisposed bias from the government minister who is supposed to pilot this legislation, and the bias is on the side that is increasingly being shunned in Europe and throughout the world. Even their children are not spared from their maximisation of public opportunities.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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