A PARADOX of our age, I think, is that we have created a child-centric society, yet children appear to have no rights or control when it comes to being ‘promoted’ online by attention-seeking parents.

A case in point is Victoria Beckham’s gushing Father’s Day Instagram post this week, in which she shared a handwritten letter by her little girl, Harper.

The letter, called “Thank you Daddy”, was very sweet (and remarkably well written for a six-year-old) but I can’t help feeling that putting it on social media, for millions of followers to see, has cheapened it.

What should have been a private keepsake moment for father and daughter became another cog in the ‘Brand Beckham’ machine.

Also this week, Kim Kardashian, no stranger to self-promotion, posted footage of her daughter smearing Mommy’s make-up on her face.

Naturally, there was a product placement mention for the make-up.

Children are all over social media. I know someone who barely lets a day go by without posting photos of her two young daughters on Facebook.

The girls are very cute, and she clearly adores them, but it becomes tiresome when she’s posting 25 images of them playing in the back garden, or riding ponies on a Sunday afternoon.

A dad regularly posts videos of his toddler doing ‘hilarious’ things, like spilling juice on the floor or singing to his daddy. Things that pretty much all little children do...

There was a video on Facebook recently of a little girl in tears because she didn’t go to the Royal wedding.

She was in the kitchen, asking her mother why “Princess Meghan” hadn’t invited her. All very sweet, but then, between sobs, the child scowled and said: “Are you filming me again?”

For such an intimate moment to be captured on a mobile, no doubt with viral online exposure in mind, turned it sour. It seemed like an invasion of privacy.

I recently met a lady who’s 100-years-old. She doesn’t have any photographs of herself as a child - as she said, unless you could afford a studio portrait, you didn’t have your picture taken.

She left school at 13 to join her family in a mill. I doubt anyone told her she was “amazing” as a child.

Now everyone and their dog has a ‘phone camera, and today’s children must be the most photographed ever, of any generation.

They spend so long posing for photos, I’m surprised they have time for a childhood.

People post images of their offspring online like a badge of honour, letting everyone know how amazing and adored their little darlings are. Yet they give youngsters no say in such showcasing. It’s an odd state of affairs in a society so obsessed with children’s rights.

ZARA Tindall has given birth to the heaviest royal baby in recent years, weighing 9lb 3oz.

I felt for Zara at last month’s Royal wedding - heavily pregnant, wearing a buttoned up coat and high heels, probably feeling far from ‘blooming’ on that long, hot day. During the service she looked flushed and uncomfortable, no doubt desperate for some fresh air and the chance to finally take off her shoes.

We’ve all been to events when we yearn get home - to the bliss of kicking off our shoes and getting into our ‘comfies’.