Instamums in the Telegraph

[caperberries]

Is there a new thread about this?

I really like the idea that now is the time to analyse this and ask what we want

Thankfully schools are talking about it because if we left it to market forces, and I include this parenting site in that, we’d be led by the £ and it would only get worse

I’m pleased that we can talk about this and others are starting to as well

Regarding children/ethics/working - I find it pretty distasteful that for example (as SofiaLemon seems desperate to go over old ground for some reason and bring up previous discussions)that if you take the Florida trip.
You have the mother dismissing this trip as 'work'. In that case it's 'work' that the children did to.
You gave YouTube videos of the father at the airport surprising his kids with the 'work' trip to Disneyland, which was followed by 'I love you daddy in response'
You have the children posing round Disneyland for the ad requirements.

Now I've no doubt they had a lovely time, the older girls at least. But to be so publicly all over the place with such different messages.

That's just one example.

I disagree with sofialemon and lovegenerateslove. And wonder if they've got young children and not teens.

Itsautumn Sali Hughes is excellent. Journalists seem much more able to handle their accounts - see MP. They are just more skilled in that arena.

And @sofialemon if you are so outraged by previous discussions why do you keep bringing up points that will encourage those issues you are so upset about to resurface. Having checked back, it seems info posted was info that had been carelessly put out there by these accounts, and you bringing it back up is something I'm doubtful they be grateful for.

the trip to Disney also presented an unrealistic account of a family holiday there, it looked like they had all the perks/extras (queue jumping passes etc). Susie Verrill's trip to Disney wasn't a press trip and highlighted the reality a lot more honestly.

BoredandTired I think those with teenagers may better understand the potential backlash from a young adult who has been exploited by their parents.

@misterpostman maybe I'm blessed with particularly questioning/private/rights orientated children who don't like being used on social media for my own gain!

@Boredandtired

I have one child under 8 and one over 11.

The reason I brought up the previous threads and imo unnecessary, extremely nasty comments is because I feel it puts things in context.

I doubt the "instamums" are angered purely because Mumsnet is discussing their ethics. They may well be pissed off at the various negative personal comments which have been made about them on here, of which there are many. I purposely have never copied and pasted any of these as it is just putting them out their again. If some of those comments had been said about me I would be extremely upset, I wouldn't feel they were justified just because I had a public insta account.

You can gloss over past threads and pretend the discussion was always re the ethics of insta, but we all know that was not the case.

@nipersvest neither account of Disney sold it to me! And Susie verrils account seemed to be basically every holiday I've ever taken I'd say with twin 2 yr olds, the Hoopers trip was similar but as it was free they couldn't show that!

It's just a massively different way of thinking, we've had a disaster this morning, DD has her GCSE English exam, it's raining so I dropped her off, just before she hands over her phone to go in the exam hall, I get a text, her glasses have broken, screw come out, arm fallen off. Lots of texts about taping them back together, no time to get them sorted before exam, etc. She's sitting her GCSE looking like Mr Bean.

If I was an instagrammer, there's a huge opportunity up there for grabs. DD could take a sad faced selfie #shouldhavegonetospecsavers posted the hell out of it and by teatime, we'd be at the opticians collecting her brand new free pair #parentexploitingchildsplightforthesakeoflikesandfreebies

I just couldn't live in a situation where everything is an insta post opportunity with no discretion eg, the potty post.

maybe I'm just behind the times, in the future, the new way of internet shopping with be to post on instagram, hashtag and tag what you need and then it arrives in the post for free.

@nipersvest

I seriously doubt any of the "instamums" would choose to do that in that situation.

Most of the accounts I follow usually only feature their younger children,especially in the ads or sponsored content. A few of those that do sometimes feature their older children have stated they are happy to be involved.

Nipersvest could we try it here if we set up p.o. boxes? Some of the prolific posters on these threads must have brought significant traffic here and helped MN's advertising exposure.

Oh and Nipersvest so sorry about your dd! One of mine pinged a contact lense out when they sat down to start exam, so did the paper did with one eye closed

@sofialemon That's hilarious. Most of them love any mild trauma or vaguely humiliating episode that they can post and get some Huns and likes. Perhaps you follow different accounts.

@Boredandtired

Which instamums do you actually think would do this in those circumstances?

I follow most of the bloggers who have been mentioned on these threads and don't believe they would. I don't think even FoD would, unless the 15/16 year old concerned wasn't upset by the situation at all, which I doubt.

yes you're right Sofia, no instamum has ever posted a comedic disaster in order to gain freebies

#newcarseat #newdishwasher #neednewpans #washingmachinerecommendationsplease

Do you remember FOD's post about the twins in A&E? That's the only real telling off I recall on his account.

I think, if faced with a similar scenario, they would all consider posting

I can’t see how children are able to give informed consent regarding this sort of thing.

And I would argue that some parents might not be as good at safeguarding their children as an agency would be, because they have an emotional investment in not wanting to admit that perhaps their activity isn’t in the best interests of their child. Agencies have a legal obligation to ensure that children employed to act in adverts etc only work certain hours, are paid, are liked after emotionally etc etc. Instakids have no boundary between home and work - they have cameras pointed at them even if they’re not aware they’re being filmed at the park (or wherever). They have no concept of the “forever”, they have no concept of their privacy, or the size of the audience. They have no way to determine whether they want to be involved with certain companies or not, they have to go with what their parents want. My SIL follows the Saccone Jolys and I remember her telling me once that you could see in a mirror at one point that the dad had put Frozen stickers on his camera to get their boy to look at it, because he hated being filmed at 2 years old and that was the logical solution (rather than you know, stop pointing the camera at him, because their children are the whole reason people watch the vlogs). THey have over a million followers, who without too much effort can find out where the kids go to school. Dates of births, full names, everything from them being plopped on their mother’s chest as newborns to potty training and eating their weight in pancakes is caught on film - and apparently screenshotted and shared on countless “fan” accounts on IG. In what way is that fair on the children?

@nipersvest

I honestly don't recall ever seeing an insta post featuring an upset older child being used to try to blag free stuff.

I don't think even FoD would, unless the 15/16 year old concerned wasn't upset by the situation at all, which I doubt

Do you think the twin who had a photograph of them, on a potty mid poo, posted on Instagram so 800k followers could see it, will be happy about that exposure when they're 15/16?

This is also my problem with instamums and it dovetails with the other thing I posted about instagram=QVC
theconversation.com/how-neoliberalism-colonised-feminism-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-94856

There is no evidence of long term damage caused to children by having been featured on SM

I simply don't think that claim stands up to scrutiny sofialemon There's plenty of evidence to suggest that children's mental health is adversely affected by social media use.

If there's no hard evidence to show the impact of being constantly featured in a big SM account - your family life revolving around it and private experiences shaped by and exploited on it - it's only because the IG phenomenon simply hasn't been around for long enough. No small children who have been in that situation have yet reached adulthood.