How parents cripple their children while filming for social networks: shocking stories of grown-up offspring of bloggers

The first "social media kids" who were the stars of their parents' blogs are now adults. And now many of them are insisting on the adoption of laws that would protect children from excessive participation in the Internet space. Parents monetize their images, videos and privacy on social media, but it often comes at the expense of children themselves, reports CNN.

Photo: iStock.com/Mikhail Seleznev

Cam Barrett knows the exact date of his first period. Her mother reported this on Facebook.
“I was in fourth grade. I was 9 years old. The date was September 9, 2009. And my mom wrote on Facebook something like, “Oh my God, my girl became a woman today.” She got her first period,” Barrett said. “A lot of my friends and their parents had social media, so I felt awkward.”

Barrett's childhood coincided with the beginning of the era of social networks. She said her mother was an avid MySpace and Facebook user. There she published details about her life and many personal moments of her daughter.

On the subject: A woman posted a photo of her dinner on social media and received a bill for $60.

Nothing about the girl's life was off-limits, Barrett said, including her tantrums, medical diagnoses and the fact that Cam was adopted.

She admitted that the popularity of her mother's posts brought her attention and bonuses from celebrities, such as front row tickets to a Demi Lovato concert. But it had a profound effect on Barrett's childhood. Today, she recalls how in middle school, bullies used public information to bully her, causing her anxiety and other mental health problems.

Sometimes the girl hid in her room so as not to be filmed. According to her, as a teenager she did not trust adults because she was afraid that her secrets would end up on social networks.

Now 25, Barrett is part of a growing movement of young people who are calling on lawmakers to protect children whose parents are on social security. networks monetize their images, videos and privacy. Cam said sharing too much personal information was detrimental to her mental health.

These young people advocate for financial compensation for media children and their right to remove objectionable content when they become adults.

Barrett shares with her 240 TikTok followers her views on the exploitative culture of family vlogging, which includes publishing children's personal information.

Why is it important

Barrett said her life was covered so much online that a man once sent her a private message on Facebook when she was 12 years old. The report said he followed her home while she was riding her bike and knew where she lived. As Cam noted, the incident increased her anxiety and made her feel like strangers were watching her every move.

At a hearing in February 2023, she tearfully called on Washington state legislators to pass legislation protecting minor children whose private lives are documented by family members on social media.

In addition to the above details, she told lawmakers that when she was 15 years old, she was involved in a car accident. And the mother, instead of lending a helping hand to her daughter, filmed her.

Barrett also recalled that during her freshman year of high school, she contracted a staph infection that landed her in the hospital. What about the mother? She posted exaggerated information about her daughter's condition on social media.

“When I returned to school, the math teacher who had seen my mother’s posts mocked me and told the kids to stay away from the infected girl,” Barrett told lawmakers. This led to bullying and eventually her dropping out of school, she said.

“I implore you to be the voice of this generation of children. “I know first-hand what it’s like to have no choice when a digital trail you didn’t create follows you for the rest of your life,” she said.

Barrett said this has all created a lot of tension between her and her mother, and now they barely speak.

Advocates demand action

Gen Zers like Barrett, born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, have almost never known a world without social media. As adults, they now understand the consequences of documenting their childhoods online.

Barrett understands that her mother was learning new technologies at the time and may not have realized the harm. Today's parents are likely to be more aware of the effects of social media on children. Advocates hope their warnings will lead to greater understanding.

Children's rights advocates said it is important for parents to respect their children's autonomy and allow them to control their own digital footprint. They said their biggest concern is not parents who occasionally post photos of their children, but family vloggers and other influencers seeking followers and income on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. They document their families' most private moments online, turning their private family life into a reality show.

Until recently, no state had laws protecting the privacy and financial interests of child influencers. But the situation is starting to change.

Barrett's home state of Illinois passed a law last year that requires parents to compensate child influencers. Parents are required to set aside a portion of the money they earn from creating content to compensate minors featured in online videos. The funds should be placed in a blocked trust fund where they will be available to the children when they turn 18. Several other states are considering similar proposals. Officials are seeking new laws similar to those governing the rights of child actors.

The issue of money

Family vlogging can be profitable. According to a January post by Werner Geiser, founder of Influencer Marketing Hub, YouTube influencers can earn about $18 for every 1000 views. This number increases quickly for influencers with huge followings. In 2022, the typical income for YouTube content creators in the U.S. was approximately $1154 per week, Geyser said.

Chris McCarthy, 19, a sophomore at the University of Washington, founded Quit Clicking Kids to combat the monetization of children's images on social media.

Some offspring of family vloggers live in dollhouses with their boss parents, McCarthy says.

“When child actors go home at the end of the day, they know they don't have to perform anymore. But this new generation of kids have nowhere to go at the end of the day where they can switch off because the camera is inside the house. It’s like living on set every day all day long,” he explained.

McCarthy said family vloggers should be regulated in the same way as the film industry. He cited as an example a California law that requires 15% of all child actors' earnings to be put into an interest-bearing fund.

More states are mulling measures to protect children

Some states are catching up with internet culture and taking a closer look at the world of child influencers and their families.

An Illinois law that takes effect in July will require family content creators to put a portion of their earnings into a locked-down trust fund for their children.

In February, both Barrett and McCarthy testified before Maryland lawmakers in support of the bill. It would require people who use minors in monetized social media content to put a percentage of the income into a trust fund once the children turn 18.

Under the bill, children whose content was posted on social media when they were minors would be able to remove inappropriate posts when they become adults.

Lawmakers in California, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Minnesota and Arizona have considered similar legislation.

Golden Rule

Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who studies social media influencers, hopes other states will follow Illinois' lead.

“Social media has changed the nature of work and, as a result, the nature of child labor. While it may be fun for a child to appear in their parents' videos, they, especially if they are a toddler, are unable to understand how far and wide social media content can spread. In cases where parents receive financial compensation for showing their child, this child essentially performs a certain amount of work,” she emphasized.

According to McCarthy, there are blatant cases where parents seek out and even create drama among their children in order to increase video views.

“Some accounts even record and monetize videos of parents encouraging their children to fight each other as a joke,” he noted.

McCarthy advises parents to follow the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“If your child posted something on social media like, ‘Oh, you know, my mom had a big fight with her co-worker at work the other day’; "Oh, my mom didn't make that business deal at work and she might get fired"; "Oh, my mom and dad don't get along because my dad spends too much time at the bar," McCarthy argued. “This is too personal, something that outsiders have no right to know about.”

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