Dad accused of being a child abuser for kissing baby daughter on the lips

"I know many fathers that are scared of this reaction."

A new dad has expressed his upset at being branded a paedophile for kissing his baby on the lips. Sean Smith from Australia says he was the target of comments from a woman he didn't know on Facebook over a photo of him kissing six-week-old daughter Bella. He shared the photo to his profile on the site. The woman spotted it after he commented on a post in a Facebook group and took issue with it, as Sean's partner Christal explained. "She said that he was a pedo and ‘what father kisses his daughter on the lips?’," she told Kidspot. "The picture has been Sean’s cover photo since that photo was taken as that is his favourite picture and he always has himself and Bella in all profile pictures so she went into his profile and screenshotted the picture and posted it saying he was a paedophile. The incident left Sean in tears, she added. "I then felt sad to think that someone would think that and it made me question if others felt the same about the photo and if I was just seeing it as beautiful when it was inappropriate to others.' She shared the image to a mums' group on Facebook to find out whether the image really was inappropriate. Most agreed that there was nothing wrong with the image but many said that their partners wouldn't be comfortable sharing a similar photo of themselves. "I know many fathers that are scared of this reaction - yet I don’t know any mothers who are," she said. "I feel this is why men are scared to change nappies or kiss their child in public. “It honestly hurts to think that men won’t post pictures or do things in public because of someone assuming things to be sinister instead of what it really is.”