Aussie Influencer Faces Backlash Over Pool Complaints

An Australian lifestyle influencer has been forced to clarify her viral complaint about being refused entry to a public swimming pool in after locals savaged her online.

Lauren Lakin, who shares travel content with her 54,000 Instagram followers, .

The 40-year-old explained her husband and young son were not allowed to swim because they were wearing boardshorts, which are banned at many public pools in France under strict hygiene rules.  

Kit then joked he had been told he would need to wear much tighter swimwear to be allowed in.

Lauren told her followers she had not known about the rule and warned other travellers to pack accordingly.

The video quickly took off, attracting hundreds of thousands of views before edging close to one million in less than 24 hours.

But the post also sparked a ferocious response from French locals and other viewers, who told the family to stop complaining and respect the rules while travelling overseas.

'Follow the rule when you come to a country,' one person snapped.

'Stay in Australia or go to Bali,' a second snapped.

'You are in France. Respect the rules or leave,' a third wrote.

'Should have done your research!' said one more. 

Others defended the policy, saying it has long been standard practice at public pools across France.

Lauren later returned to social media to clarify the family had not technically been kicked out, but had simply decided not to buy the required swimwear on the day.

'It's always the videos you least expect,' she said.

'Posted that just because I needed to get something up last night, and I had it sitting in my camera roll. I was like, 'Right, I'll just post that.' And then woke up to 250,000 views, and now it's not even been 24 hours and it's almost at a million views.'

Lauren admitted the viral clip had attracted some brutal responses.

'There's some very passionate people in the comments, as like with every viral video I've ever had,' she said.

'It somehow finds the dark side of the web, always.'

She said she usually has a positive experience on social media, but avoids reading comments when a post unexpectedly goes viral.