Influencer ethics on Instagram 2

[MadameGrizzly]

It appears we haven't quite finished workshopping the ethical issues of 'influencing' on Instagram: disclose of advertising, the exploitation of minors and the similarities to MLM schemes.

Funnily, I've just signed a consent for photos for when my son attends Norjam in the summer. I didn't even consider asking him.
I'm now going to do this when he gets home 👍🏼

Asking your child to consent to a photo being shared feels like passing on a responsibility you as a parent should be owning. While a ten year old can consent to a photo being shared at that point in time, they can’t and won’t consider how they will feel about it being part of their digital footprint in 5 or 10 years time.
Ultimately I think children should start to make informed decisions about their own digital footprints as young adults and our role should be supporting and educating them so they can make good decisions. Interesting that’s also the view and all the friends I have who work in tech and data science.

That's how I see it as well, hodgeheg - it should be a parents decision as a child, but once they start to become older children/young adults they should have a say. We as parents should set a good example and teach them not to give out any personal information etc in the meantime.
If we're cavalier with privacy and identifying information being shared after all, it won't be surprising if they see that as the norm and don't take care themselves.

Yup I agree.

I think it stems from when I took a photo recently and he asked me not to put it on social media, so I didn't.
And prior to this thread I would've consented to him having his photo taken but now I think he should have an opinion.

My husband thinks that until they become young adult the responsibility lays with the adult to make to decision, but to educate.

For me when an IGer comes on here and says she's posted photos with her 7 and 10 year olds consent it's almost laughable and comes back to a point raised before. Own your choices, own your account, own your business, whatever. But don't use your children to reassure yourself that you are doing the right thing or it's ok to share. A 7 or 10 year old should not have that responsibility.

Does anyone have any idea what sort of money these accounts are making? It's seems to be very profitable and I can only think it's a lot of you are prepared to put your kids out there like that (in some cases) although equally given the large accounts who don't use their kids as a selling point, do they need to?

@flyingbird very true. It's a minefield!

I work in marketing, not directly in social media but my colleagues do. How much you can earn totally depends on followers/interaction levels but a fee of 2k for a one off post would be about right for a sizeable instagrammer. Longer term campaigns would be £10k plus.

How about NOT taking photos and posting them online until the child is old enough to consent properly. Why doesn't EVERYONE give their child that right? It's obscene that people don't.

So a lot of us seem to be in agreement that with kids it's a parental responsibility. With them making the decisions on behalf of the child. Whether it be as a photo or an IG feed. So then the IGers aren't really doing wrong. The level (or lack of) privacy may not be something that sits comfortably with us, but ultimately as parents we decide what to do for the best. Once they get older, they choose for themselves.

I’m with Garfunkel

Yes to consent but let them not be subject to loads of photos online until they can decide for themselves

No, I think the default should be that as a parent you take the decision not to share until your child is old enough to take that decision for themselves. A child’s digital footprint is with them for life and we shouldn’t be saddling our children with a large and possibly embarrassing digital footprint. Plus of course there’s a child’s right to privacy.

I'm with Garfunkel as well.

Does the school pimp your kids out to make money through advertising? Are they launching a social media career on the back of photos of your kids? Do they post photos of your kids bouncing naked on a trampoline to nearly a million people? Do they post photos of your kid on the toilet?

No, thought not.

And it’s not consenting to the odd pic in many cases, the ones we’re talking about anyway, it’s daily pics, embarrassing, cute or candid pics for the benefit of the parents’ wallets and 1m followers.
And sometimes both have accounts and tag team it so it really does look like the norm

If you could ask the three year old’s future self if the above is ok. Would you say yes

Agree up to a point *@CadyHeron * - but, if you are the parent making the decision then you need to own that decision and not hide behind a 7 year old saying that you asked his/her permission. The parent is the one making the decision, not the child who actually doesn't understand the full picture.

I think it's the parent's responsibility to make the right decisions for their children and to protect the children's privacy until they are old enough to give informed consent. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back if the child grows up and wants their privacy to be better protected (which may not be the stance the grown up as taken), so keep the genie in the bottle and protect their privacy until they can make that decision themselves.

Completely agree with Garfunkel

I think the thing that a lot of the “insta-famous” mum’s/dad’s fail to realise is that the viewing public are no longer as naive as maybe they once were.

We know they make money from this
We know they use their kids to fuel the business or in some cases the kids are the business
We know they are given free products/ services/holidays etc

I just wish they would stop dressing it all up as this cutesy, twee, childish “oh look at me and my girl gang, look how cute we are in our matching (free) over priced tshirts!”

Just cut the crap, own your shit. Don’t pretend that it’s all “parents in it together, showing what life is like on the coal face of looking after children!” Because most of them live a lifestyle that is so far removed from the reality that most parents face it’s almost a bit of an insult to be honest.

I’d say anyone who strives to build numbers through children as content so they can bring in £ is on dubious ground

I would never post a pic of my child on a potty having a poo in the name of (my) self promotion.

That child deserves not to be in danger of that photo doing the rounds on snapchat so their peers can have a laugh when they reach high school age.