00:00Pregnant with now six-month-old baby Annabelle, and with her family overseas, first-time Canberra
00:08mum Morgan turned to social media for support, advice and reassurance.
00:12It's such a time of change and it's a very unique thing to go through.
00:17You know, your body changes, your relationship changes, you're anticipating what's coming,
00:23so it's just really reassuring finding people going through the same thing.
00:27One of the Facebook groups she signed up for was Canberra Mums Group.
00:31With 13,500 members and an explicit ban on anyone other than women signing up, Morgan
00:37assumed it was run by a local Canberra mum.
00:40Recently, however, members have found out it's actually operated by a Sydney-based
00:45digital media company, with a man listed as the public administrator.
00:49They've also found out it operates on a subscription-based model where businesses can pay hundreds of
00:54dollars a month to advertise within the group, and any other marketing is banned.
00:59That's something some members say they weren't previously aware of.
01:03We've got babies we're talking about, so if something is monetised, I wanted to be aware
01:07from the start.
01:09Motherhood is very unfamiliar for all of us, and you join a group for the support of mothers
01:14and to find out that potentially there's monetising in our trauma and our experiences, that's
01:20a bit more uncomfortable.
01:21The group admin, Jonathan Deutscher of On Topic Media, says he's been in the business
01:26of managing social media channels, including the Mums Group and a handful of others around
01:31the country and overseas, for more than a decade.
01:35He says group members may have seen clearly labelled messages from sponsors in the Facebook
01:40groups, and these sponsors help fund the admins needed to manage the groups.
01:45And he says he uses his Facebook account as a public admin to ensure the group stays secure
01:51and functional.
01:52An expert says while there's nothing wrong with businesses running online groups in principle,
01:57and many do, it's important members are aware of what's going on.
02:01I can completely understand how everybody in that group feels let down and does feel
02:06like they want to move on.
02:08It does have a huge ick factor.
02:10Both mums have decided their best bet was to make a new group, one they say will be
02:15all about supporting local mums and run by local mums.
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