Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has been criticised for posting a photo of herself giving her young daughter a birthday kiss on the lips.

The singer turned fashion designer uploaded the innocent snap to Instagram in celebration of Harper’s fifth birthday.

Hundreds of people posted messages of goodwill to the celeb mum and her little girl, but some complained about the picture being “suggestive” or “lesbian”.

Among the small-minded people commenting on it being wrong for parents to show their children affection in this way, one user wrote: “It is strange to kiss your parents on the lips. We need to stop saying to other people it isn’t.”

Another said: “It's not right to damn near make oht w your kid. Look how her head is tilting.”

Other claims included “kids get cold sores from their parents kissing them on the mouth”, while someone suggested Harper should wear a bathing suit or shirt because there are “a lot of perverts out there.”

Some sanity was restored, with many people leaping to Victoria’s defence over the photo.

One wrote: “Wow I've never read anything dumber than that you sound worse than Donald Trump.”

Another commented: “She is a mum showing her daughter how much she loves her. Get your minds out of the gutter people.”

And someone else said: “it's her child, why shouldn't she kiss her on the lips, forehead, toes or wherever she wants? Necessary doesn't come in to it. She is not causing her harm or upset. She's being her loving mother.”

Do you think Mrs Beckham deserves any criticism for her mother-daughter birthday photo? What could possibly be wrong with a parent kissing their child on the lips?.

And if you'd like to show support, we'd love to do a picture gallery of similarly lovely parenting moments in response to this storm in a teacup. If you have a photo of yourself kissing your child you'd like us to include, email it to us, send it through this form or message us on Facebook.