A police investigation has been launched in the United States after a shocking image which was posted to Facebook sparked outage among social media users last week.
The disturbing photograph which shows two toddlers bound and silenced with duct tape was accompanied by a message which read: "Kids for sale, 45% because they bad."
The image which was uploaded by Jaton Justsilly Jaibabi of Memphis, Tennessee, who is thought to be the mother of one of the children, was ultimately brought to police attention by Facebook users aghast by the horrifying nature of the photo.
Taking to Facebook to defend his cousin, Derion King insisted that the photo was nothing more than a practical joke, writing: "I don't really to much care about the people they have opinions."
"Our family and friends know the love we have for all the kids in our family it's just crazy that out of a whole lifetime they judge a person off of this one event," he continued.
In the post which seeks to shed light on an apparent misunderstanding, he wrote: "Basically a joke at the moment that people just went overboard about. People make mistakes and that's what this situation is, a lesson learned."
Derion, whose cousin has since deleted her Facebook account, finished his social media post with the words: "They are safe, unharmed, and loved that's all it is to it."
While Derion may hope his words might pour oil on troubled waters, innumerable members of the public are still disgusted by the image which appeared online last Friday, with one local parent saying: "I could not breathe. It took my breath away, caused extreme emotional distress. These are children. These are human beings."
It has been established that the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services will be conducting further research into the incident before investigating the family at the centre of this controversy.
