The kids are not alright
Child exploitation on social media is becoming a massive problem
Family vlogging and “mommy vlogging” are two booming and controversial genres of social media content, where parents document their children’s lives for views.
The Ace Family and the LaBrant Family are two examples of family vloggers who have made the news for alleged exploitation of their children for money, primarily on YouTube.
Family vloggers have constantly been criticized both in the news and in their own comment sections for using their children for clickbait while also sexualizing them to increase engagement. This has sparked concern for many, prompting users to report these accounts for exploiting minors and engaging in generally corrupt practices.
Wren Eleanor is one concerning case of a child being sexualized and made to be “mature” on social media. Eleanor’s mother runs a TikTok account under Eleanor’s name, where the preschooler is the main focus. Many users describe the videos as suggestive, with Eleanor being heavily sexualized and “adult-ified.”
Following the concerns and criticism, all videos have since been removed from the TikTok account.
Monetizing children is a severe invasion of privacy.
TikTok allows users to see the number of “saves” that a video has, which means there is an increased awareness of other users’ activity on the app. People became concerned with the high number of saves on videos featuring children, prompting many to flag the account due to concern of child predators saving the videos of the young girl.
Children whose lives are exposed on social media are at heightened risk of being targeted by predators. And with the way AI is evolving, these children are also at risk of having their identities used and manipulated into pornography.
The government of Canada has introduced legislation to protect children against digital exploitation; however, this may not be enough given the rate at which social media and technology are evolving.
Unfortunately, maturity no longer has anything to do with personality and demeanor; it has everything to do with how parents present their children to the world.
When did we divorce the concepts of youthfulness and maturity from each other?
Social media is not a place for children. “Stranger danger” has grown to a new level, with the safety of young kids genuinely under threat. It is already no surprise that social media can be a dangerous place, and having predators hide behind a screen makes this all the more concerning.
By forcing maturity upon young children, monetizing their lives and exploiting them for views, parents have allowed their children to be stripped of their privacy and, in turn, their childhood.
