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.

I don’t really understand how we have sleepwalked into this being relatively normal and not depressing black mirror shit.

So agree with this, it's become so "normal" no one questions it anymore.

There’s still people who don’t but how awful it will be when everyone does it

Just asked dc age 13.
Is it ok for parents to show pictures of their children on Instagram?
Emphatic ‘no’
What about if they’re really young?
‘That’s even worse!’

Admittedly we don’t do it so it’s not the norm, no idea what he would have said if we did

And I think the fact it’s so normal is one of the reasons it’s hard for influencers to see a problem with it: they’re doing what huge numbers of parents do just on a larger scale. We’ve all seen the school uniform/full name/sports team details of children we barely know on FB etc. I guess followers can’t easily challenge influencers doing it when they do it themselves.

As has been mentioned time and again on these threads, a lot of followers just don’t care about this stuff. They don’t think it’s bad to share endless photos of unconsenting children and they don’t care about ads, instead taking the “I would if I could, good for you!” approach.

I can’t remember if I saw it on Instagram itself or quoted on here but I’ve seen influencers out right ask their followers in Stories polls about what they want them to do re disclosing freebies and sometimes you see 60% or whatever saying they don’t think they need disclosing?! It’s pure madness. I agree with the previous MLM comparisons and wonder if some fangirls just think they’re doing their idol a favour by saying “don’t feel you need to explain yourself hun” but I don’t get it.

As PPs have said, anyone that works in IT or child protection is hyper aware of minimising digital footprints and that should say it all really. The people who truly know about this stuff wouldn’t risk it. And we’ve all seen the Mark Zuckerberg pics where his laptop camera and mic are taped up.

I know people don’t like the “Mumsnet vs Instagram” debate but I can’t help but wonder if there is a big difference in the userbase and that is that MNers apply critical thinking to this topic whereas swathes of people on Instagram just want to brush it all off as jealous nonsense.

bernard I wonder if the difference in the user base might be the same as the difference between mumsnet and the “other site” which traditionally were pitted against each other, as the person who set up that site also set up Channel Mum which a lot of the instamums work for?

I "follow" (am nosey) one instamum (10k followers) who has two girls 4 and 18 months. One is considerably more photogenic so is in all her shots and the other often gets ignored despite needing her attention because she's only 18 months - it's so sad. You can clearly see she knows which child is more favourable looking and so who she gets in all her shots. I often wonder the impact it will have on the younger one.

Hang on, you can get 2 grand for one Instagram post?!

Still wouldn't post a picture of my kid on the potty to nigh on a million people though. No amount of money in the world would make me do that. How has FOD got so many followers, and so many more than Clemmie? Is it really just the twin factor?

FOD is a novelty. How many other insta dads do you know? His page is really professional and he has 4 indenticat cherubs. He ticks a lot of boxes. His fan base is women aged 20-35 apparently, so many women without kids?

Sorry whoever asked, you can see figures for top 10 times best sellers publicly, a bit harder to find the other figures.

I don't think Instagram parenting is translating into book sales very well. Cookery and fashion does i.e. Zoella & Ella's kitchen.

I wonder if Instagram users are younger than MNers generally? and have a different outlook on public exposure. We are talking about our kids being tech savvy - they are the next generation who are learning the pitfalls of SM from 20-30 year olds.

@garfunkelthecat the the younger the child, the more likes. I've seen this even on my own small page, before I'd made it private. I imagine 2 the same must just exaggerate this effect. A brief look at many accounts that feature kids and it's clear that the young children are where the money is.

@moonkissedlegs I've just been googling, and some get paid £100 per 100 followers and many with large followings get paid way in excess of 2k a post. It's big money and totally follower dependant. All a bit contrived really and makes you wonder why some of these accounts treat their followers with such dissent. It's also surprising that if your followers are providing your income you don't make your job to come across as anything but lovely and grateful!

I suppose if you can get the content for free by following - no idea what his book has In it however

Cookery book was old school IG, funny how it feels like an age since Deliciously Ella, hotdog legs and sunsets

@flyingbird I think he presents a kind of 'hilarious' take on parenthood that people without kids think it might be like. And he's tried hard to be ideal, 'dad's spend time with your kids' posts etc. I can't imagine that many men follow him or think that highly of his advice. Strange thing is as his account has evolved, it's changed, and when he first mentioned the book and his experiences as a young dad, I thought ok. But as his bizarre, hapless persona has developed and his oversharing has exceeded anything normal, and his account has gone from funny dad/worker/husband to 'overwhelmed daddy of girls' it's lost something genuine.
He still seems to have hoards of fans so it's working in some way. But perhaps there's appeal in a dad who appears to spend all his time working and providing childcare whilst his wife galavants around hotels/holidays/nights out working one shift a week whilst he gushes how amazing she is. His book has been seemingly written around his day job and the childcare and he's too busy to go on free holidays.
But then on the flip side it seems his account is his business and he won't answer to anyone!
Reading through the comments earlier almost made me wonder if they actually like the attention generated from discussion on these threads and it's all a ploy to keep the traffic coming!

BoredandTired I might be misunderstanding but are you saying £1 per 1 follower? (£100 per 100)
Does that scale up? Surely not. So £100k = £100k and so on

BoredandTired I might be misunderstanding but are you saying £1 per 1 follower? (£100 per 100)
Does that scale up? Surely not. So £100k = £100k and so on

Yeah, that can't be right!

Neverwas - I wouldn't say FOD is a novelty, there's loads of Dads out there with similar USP of hapless dad/ hands on dad/parenting etc on social media. It's just he's the one who MNers on these threads seem to enjoy analyse and comment on.

You know what it's like getting lost in google! I'll try to find it. Maybe that's if you only have followers in the 100's... but it did say that. Just doing tea!

His page is really professional

No its not the captions are always full of errors. I think he said he has dyslexia which is the reason for this, but it's still not 'professional' to have captions with lots of mistakes.

I don't think Instagram parenting is translating into book sales very well.

I think the unmumsy mums and hurrah for gins books did well (everyone I know has them!) but even so I know the unmumsy mum (can't remember her name now!) said that the money from book sales isn't astronomical or anything, which is why she tentatively started moving into #ads.

@cadyheron can you list some as I'd really like to see more just for balance? I follow daddy of triplet girls and papapukka. Not really got any others on my feed and it's so female dominated some blokes other than skateboarders would be good.

@moonkissedlegs maybe that was because they were first? And novel? Although hurrah for gin never appealed to me (the name put me off) and I like the unmumsy mum in real life but found it all a bit twee and don't have the book. I actually don't think I'd buy any unless it was a novel.

FOD is popular because he's

a) male (I know, I know)
b) easy on the eye
c) in a relatively unique position for having four daughters - two of which happen to be toddler twins

Marry that with a decent PR team and you've hit pay dirt.

I stumbled upon the multidad who popped up on my recommended page (looking at some of these accounts after the threads has properly screwed with my algorithm). He looks like a similar but as yet smaller version to FOD.

As an aside does anyone follow Eva Chen? She works for Instagram but never actually appears to do any work! It's all team fitness classes, eating and fannying about. She's also seems to struggle with the technology and cuts her stories in a weird way.