TW: Pedophilia
As someone who likely has a phone and social media accounts, I’m sure you’ve seen family vloggers or a family TikTok account appear on your feed at some point. Some popular examples include the LaBrant family on Youtube and Abbie Herbert on TikTok. In a nutshell, these accounts, run by parents, pretty much exclusively feature content about their children.
I love little kids, so a part of me appreciates this content. However, that’s not to say I approve of these internet accounts. In fact, I don’t approve of these accounts at all, and I, and many others, are trying to purge my feeds of them because we find them completely unethical. These parents shouldn’t be invading their kids’ privacy just for a check and it’s time that we, as “the general public,” stop enabling these channels.
Children Can’t Consent
It shouldn’t be controversial to say that becoming a public figure is a pretty big move, and it should ideally be a personal choice to do so. For some of these kids though, that choice was made for them before they could even talk. Imagine having a camera in your face since the day you were born.
Alice Lani is a self proclaimed “crunchy mom” with over 700,000 TikTok followers. She’s vegan, antivax, and preaches “informed consent” when it comes to making medical decisions. However, much of her content focuses on her infant son Fern who definitely has not given “informed consent” to be the star of her social media accounts.
Family accounts are frankly an invasion of privacy. never in a million years would I have wanted my parents to share all my vulnerable moments with the world. I don’t even want to share my vulnerable moments as an adult, so what makes these parents think it’s ok to do this to their kids? It’s a safety concern; you’re never really a private citizen if footage of you from every stage of your life exists on the world wide web. Again, going public is a high stakes decision, and these parents shouldn’t make that decision on their kids’ behalf.
Kids Aren’t A Paycheck
In my opinion, there’s truly no ethical explanation for using your kid to make money. Parents should be the ones who provide for their kids, not the other way around.
The notorious ACE Family, known as the “First Family of Youtube”, sells merchandise with their kids, but that’s not the end of their weird behavior. Among other things, dad Austin spanks his daughter on camera, makes her twerk, and both parents have social media accounts dedicated to their small child. Now, are these kids actually seeing a dime of the profits? Or are the parents using it to pay their $50 thousand rent?
“[Family vlogs instill children] with an unhealthy mindset early on that everything they do must be for the benefit of others, and that the pressure of having food on the table relies on whether the family performs or not”, explains therapist Sam Nabil, CEO and Lead Therapist of Naya Clinics. “It can mess with their concept of free will, and interfere with their understanding of what’s real life and what’s for show”. Imagine the movie The Truman Show, where a man’s life was made into a television show without his consent. That’s essentially what’s happening to these kids.
We’ve seen what happens with traditional child stars. Designating children as the family breadwinners can’t lead anywhere good. It’s only a matter of time before these “internet kids” go off the rails or fall off the map. In May, one of the more popular girls from the controversial TV show Toddlers & Tiaras took her own life. While she hadn’t been on the show for over a decade, the damage of being in the public eye so young is long-lasting. It’s simply too much strain for a little kid.
FAMILIES MAY FACE Incredibly Dangerous Repercussions
This is about to get dark, but if we’re dealing with kids on the internet, we need to face the facts. And the facts are that pedophiles have been taking advantage of the internet for years, and whether intentionally or not, these family channels facilitate by putting their kids in serious danger.
Austin McBroom of the aforementioned ACE family took his small daughter into a Spencer’s and filmed her as she licked a phallic-shaped lollipop from their sex toy section. Needless to say, it did not end well: many were disgusted by the video and called out McBroom’s greed at the expense of his children.
Now, the little girl likely just saw a lollipop, but if I were McBroom, an adult, I certainly wouldn’t have posted my daughter licking that lollipop for the wrong people to see. The issue of internet pedophiles and YouTube channels has even gone to the Senate, resulting in a proposed bill that would prohibit platforms from promoting content that features minors.
Should Kids Be On The Internet At All?
If you ask me, the short answer is no.
But if you want a longer answer, I understand that family vlogs can help bring parents together. It does take a village to raise kids and the more support and community parents have, the better. However, it’s possible to make parenting content without exploiting kids and violating their privacy. Tori Phantom on TikTok is a great example: Most of their parenting content involves them recounting the story themselves after it happened, and while we occasionally see their daughters, we don’t know their real names to give them some anonymity. Clearly, Phantom wants to share their experiences as a parent while also honoring their childrens’ privacy. And I must say, I (along with millions of others) really enjoy their videos, so it’s possible to post fun and informative family content without exploiting kids.
The internet is fun. There’s lots of great websites and ways to spend hours of your life. Plus, there are hundreds of people on the internet who make entertaining content who have consented to do so and know full well they are public figures. You yourself may not be exploiting a child by clicking a video with a toddler in the thumbnail, but I think it’s best not to enable that behavior at all. Let kids be kids, not paychecks.