The examples in the article aren't even the worse ones I've seen. There's a class of videos where the parents have a special interest, or specific lifestyle they want to live and not only they force their kids to live that life and do those things, but also record them for views. There's one with a family that lives in an RV (willingly) with very little space and they make the children record videos for views. I also remember a Youtube channel that made videos where one of the kids was constantly "pranked" because they thought it was funny...
Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
11–20 of 243 posts
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#12I feel terrible for kids like this whose entire lives are put on the Internet and there's nothing they can do about it. Like that poor autistic kid, whose mother used him to make videos and make money, and then "re-homed" him like he was an animal.
I think that's an unnecessarily harsh take on what happened.
People adopt. Some people purposely adopt kids that they know have special needs. Sometimes, people with the best intentions, end up in a situation where they are way over their heads. Before you're actually in the situation, there's no possible way to know how difficult it will be, nor what your limits are. (And until you've seen someone actually overwhelmed, it's hard to even imagine what that looks like.) If a child's needs are beyond your limits, you are doing them absolutely no favors to keep them in your home. Having any child, even one biologically your own, is fundamentally a risk.
So consider some hypotheses:
A. The couple in question genuinely wanted to help a child who needed help; and genuinely wanted to inspire other people to adopt by sharing the sorrows and joys; but unexpectedly found themselves in over their head, and made the difficult (and publicly embarrassing) decision to pass the child on to someone better suited to care for them
B. The couple in question thought that a good way to make a few bucks would be to adopt a difficult child for 6 months, get a large viewership, and then pass them on to someone else
I mean, I suppose B is possible, but it seems like a really dumb way to go about things. There would certainly be lots of easier ways to make money.
Whether it was right to make a public spectacle of the child's situation, even assuming the best intentions, is a different question.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#13This article unfortunately doesn't cover a much darker part of the TikTok children: exploitation of the children for the titillation of online creepers. The Some Place Under Neith podcast goes into this extensively [their "Parasocial Pits Of Hell" series]. It's completely legal to vlog your children in swimming outfits or a similar level of skin exposure, have the children sing or perform for their "fans", and encour…
Same can be said about child beauty contest.
Child pageants are creepy AF. They are perfect targets for creeps - former President Trump, for example, got alleged by five women to have walked in on girls as young as 15 while they were changing [1] -, but even without that level of creepiness, the sexualization of young girls has been closely linked to mental health issues down the road [2].
And this legalized pedophilia industry makes 5 billion dollars a year[3]. Unbelievable.
[1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/teen-bea...
[2] https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report
[3] https://truthout.org/articles/child-beauty-pageants-a-scene-...
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#14I guess the solution is to try to take some of the law's protecting child actors and apply them to influencers? https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/child-actor-labor-laws I think it is hard, because influences are in random jurisdictions and just arise without much structure. Maybe it can be controlled at the platform level, like YouTube and TikTok as they are the ones funnel money to these influencers? It would require so…
I always found it strange that child labor laws have an exception for acting. From what I've seen, acting is probably a worse job for kids than many of the jobs that are outlawed.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#15I feel terrible for kids like this whose entire lives are put on the Internet and there's nothing they can do about it. Like that poor autistic kid, whose mother used him to make videos and make money, and then "re-homed" him like he was an animal.
I think that's an unnecessarily harsh take on what happened. People adopt. Some people purposely adopt kids that they know have special needs. Sometimes, people with the best intentions, end up in a situation where they are way over their heads. Before you're actually in the situation, there's no possible way to know how difficult it will be, nor what your limits are. (And until you've seen someone actually overwhelm…
> Whether it was right to make a public spectacle of the child's situation, even assuming the best intentions, is a different question.
Um....disagree. That's literally THE question being discussed.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#16The examples in the article aren't even the worse ones I've seen. There's a class of videos where the parents have a special interest, or specific lifestyle they want to live and not only they force their kids to live that life and do those things, but also record them for views. There's one with a family that lives in an RV (willingly) with very little space and they make the children record videos for views. I also…
>I also remember a Youtube channel that made videos where one of the kids was constantly "pranked" because they thought it was funny...
If you're thinking of daddyofive, IIRC they had the two kids who were from the dad's previous marriage taken away and put in their bio mom's custody. They were then charged with child neglect and restricted from uploading footage of their kids. They ignored that restriction with no consequences though.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's an unnecessarily harsh take on what happened. People adopt. Some people purposely adopt kids that they know have special needs. Sometimes, people with the best intentions, end up in a situation where they are way over their heads. Before you're actually in the situation, there's no possible way to know how difficult it will be, nor what your limits are. (And until you've seen someone actually overwhelm…
> Whether it was right to make a public spectacle of the child's situation, even assuming the best intentions, is a different question. Um....disagree. That's literally THE question being discussed.
Overtonwindow was implying case B. I'm trying to say that case A is much more likely, without saying anything one way or another about how it relates to TFA.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#18The examples in the article aren't even the worse ones I've seen. There's a class of videos where the parents have a special interest, or specific lifestyle they want to live and not only they force their kids to live that life and do those things, but also record them for views. There's one with a family that lives in an RV (willingly) with very little space and they make the children record videos for views. I also…
> I also remember a Youtube channel that made videos where one of the kids was constantly "pranked" because they thought it was funny...
That was the Daddyofive/Familyofive situation. IIRC they eventually ended up loosing custody of all their kids.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#19I guess the solution is to try to take some of the law's protecting child actors and apply them to influencers? https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/child-actor-labor-laws I think it is hard, because influences are in random jurisdictions and just arise without much structure. Maybe it can be controlled at the platform level, like YouTube and TikTok as they are the ones funnel money to these influencers? It would require so…
The problem I see here is where would the "line" be? That is, when does that video you post on Instagram of your family at Disney or someone blowing out candles at a birthday stop being just a family video and starts being content?
I guess the easy way to make that distinction would be if your content is "monetized" but even then it seems like there are many loopholes and gotchas.
Re: Influencer parents and the kids who had their childhood made into content
#20I feel terrible for kids like this whose entire lives are put on the Internet and there's nothing they can do about it. Like that poor autistic kid, whose mother used him to make videos and make money, and then "re-homed" him like he was an animal.
I think that's an unnecessarily harsh take on what happened. People adopt. Some people purposely adopt kids that they know have special needs. Sometimes, people with the best intentions, end up in a situation where they are way over their heads. Before you're actually in the situation, there's no possible way to know how difficult it will be, nor what your limits are. (And until you've seen someone actually overwhelm…
I'm adding C: the couple in question wanted to feel important and thought about how nice would they appear in networks if they just adopted a difficult kid, so they did that without really thinking about the kid or even their own wellbeing. So, at the moment motivation ran out they bailed out because it wasn't worth it, but they didn't go in thinking to pass the child after a few months.
In other words, there's a third option other than "malice" and "good intentions": narcissism.
But the most important thing, as the other commenter says: making a public spectacle of the child's situation is the question that's being asked here. And it's an important question because the ability to make a public spectacle might be the difference between some people getting kids or not.