Donor with 1000 Kids Suggests Social Media Symbol to Prevent Incest

Jonathan Jacob Meijer, a prolific sperm donor featured in the new Netflix documentary The Man with 1000 Kids, has suggested that his numerous donor children could use a social media symbol to avoid unknowingly engaging in incestuous relationships.

The Netflix docuseries details how Meijer spent many years donating to sperm banks and women he met privately. In 2023, The Hague District Court banned him from further sperm donation over fears of inbreeding, following his admission of fathering over 550 children worldwide.

During the trial, a Dutch judge questioned Meijer about the risk of incest. According to court documents presented in the series, his lawyers argued, “The defence argues that if they are worried about incest, his donor children can use a social media symbol to identify themselves as one of his children.”

One of the donor mothers, an Australian woman named Kate, dismissed the idea. “It was a horrible suggestion,” she says during the series. “A lot of children may not want to display a symbol. A lot of those children may want to maintain their privacy.”

Questioned about the suggestion by The Independent, Meijer initially claimed, “I forgot I said that!” before adding, “But it’s a serious point.”

He later argued that he came up with the idea to highlight the possibilities presented by social media, noting that when he first started donating sperm in 2007, such platforms were not prevalent.

“I just wanted to emphasize that when I started as a donor there was no Facebook, no YouTube, Instagram. Maybe not even WhatsApp,” he said. “The world has changed so drastically. When Facebook came, I knew 100 percent that people would find each other, recipients and children. That’s what happened. People can so easily create a group for donor recipient parents in the Netherlands and they will talk. ‘My donor is from the Hague.’ ‘Oh, mine too!’ And they have my name.”

He added, “The symbol was more to show that in the digital world there are always solutions. I think people talk way too much about problems. It can be simple. If they want, they can put a symbol. You have to think openly and not see in every corner a problem.”

Earlier this week, The Independent spoke to Natalie and Suzanne, two of the donor mothers featured in the docuseries, about how their lives had been upended by the discovery of how many siblings their child has and their fears over potential inbreeding.

Meijer also spoke to The Independent about why he feels the series was misleading, and the specific accusations he calls “total slander”.