'Sexy selfie' with discarded baby divides internet

The couple's image went viral for all the wrong reasons. Photo / Instagram

A couple who shared a racy family snap online were quick to delete it after backlash over their "discarded" baby.

The couple, Stefan Pollman and Philia Gold, posted two photos to Instagram during a holiday to Sydney.

The first photo on Pollman's Instagram featured all three members of the family taking a photo on a chair in a mirror.

The first image featuring the baby. Photo / Instagram

However the second photo appears to feature just Pollman and Gold, until you look closely and see their toddler is actually in the corner of the photo on the ground with her head out of the frame.

In the second photo the baby is now on the floor. Photo / Instagram

The picture perfect family sparked a heated debate about their parenting style after writer Summer Ray posted the side-by-side pictures to her Twitter account. Captioning the images "Lord forgive me I cannot stop laughing at the discarded baby in the second photo."

It didn't take long before Twitter responded either, with users jumping online to criticise the couple for the strange family photoshoot.

Edwin compared the discarded baby to Marie Kondo cleaning up items. Photo / Instagram

Phil believed the image reached "Peak Instagram". Photo / Twitter

However one user gave the couple the benefit of the doubt, believing instead that it might be a doll in the corner of the image.

Jeff Jorne noted: "The baby is in exactly the same pose. I think it might be a doll!"

After the image went viral online and the hilarious responses rolled in, Ray noted on Twitter that her intention was never to shame the couple.

"I didn't post this to shame the couple, so please people stop bullying them," she wrote. "It's just a funny photo and I'm sure they're great parents."

Both photos have now been deleted from Pollman's Instagram account.