Love or loathe the Kardashians, bringing toddlers into the media slanging match is a step too far. This week media outlets shared a video showing North West telling paparazzi to stop taking her picture. The 2-year old was en route to a ballet class when she tried to hide her face and ran to hold her minder’s hand to be led away from the flashing of the cameras. Although there was mixed reports on the incident, most agreed that it was cruel that a child was forced to order adults to stop taking her picture. Others joked that she already has a sassy little attitude. And then one publication decided to take a cheap shot and link the child to her mother’s infamous sex tape. Late last night, Billboard tweeted a picture of Kim Kardashian holding her daughter, while North licked a lollipop, accompanied by the caption: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Image: Jezebel The tweet lasted mere minutes on site before users called out the media brand on their sickening message, and the possible connotation of using such a suggestive image. A second tweet quickly replaced the first, backtracking on the original sentiment and innuendo:

North West is already pretty sassy (but in a cute way) https://t.co/lSuMsTpdWB pic.twitter.com/tF6ORO2hY3

— billboard (@billboard) October 30, 2015

We apologize for the tweet involving North West. The caption was about her comments to paparazzi. The suggestion some see was not intended. — billboard (@billboard) October 30, 2015

Whether it was a poor choice of language or not, how it was possible for someone to publish a tweet that could link back a sexual innuendo on a child is just inexcusable.