Child on social media, presents upon presents received every day

[CarteBlanch]

I have a child with special needs and follow a few different social media pages created by the parents of other children with special needs. I really enjoy the content for the most part but one of these pages makes me feel a bit.. I don't know.. uncomfortable? Perhaps thats not the right word to use. It just doesn't sit right.

Basically the little girl (who is non verbal for the most part) is being inundated with gift after gift after gift from well intended followers, every day, encouraged by the parents. She is then made to sit and unwrap them all on film, listen to the (sometimes long and drawn out) writing contained within said cards and has to say thank you etc.

Occasionally she seems happy with what she gets but she looks completely bored and disinterested the vast majority of the time and clearly just wants to go off and do her own thing.

It all feels a bit materialistic and wasteful. Nobody needs 100's of toys do they?

Do you think IABU?

I mean, you have to tell us the account name so we can check for ourselves 😊

I really don't think the wastefulness of this is the main worry. Very exploitative of their child . I'm not sure who you can report this type of content to . I would not follow this type of content where any child is part of the content.

What’s the account?! Need to have a look to see if YABU !

It's lilmisssweetp on Instagram.

I mean, just unfollow.

There are people all over the world doing things I disapprove of.

What are you going to do?

I'm not going to do anything.

I wanted to know whether I was being unreasonable to disagree with the content.

This is a forum full of 100's of threads discussing random things online.

Is that OK?

Lovely thread. I have looked at the insta page in question. How unpleasant for you to start a thread berating this young woman, and putting her name on here in the hope that everyone can join in with you bashing her. Ewwww. Shame on you!

I've looked at the pages as well, it's naff and tacky as fuck. The OP isn't berating the child herself, she appears to be criticising those who have decided to exploit a disabled child for personal gain.

I think you might just be a bit jealous.

Give it a rest. Berating the young woman? I hopw you are referring to her mother.

I don't know one SN parent alive who would bash a SN child, so you can sod right off with that insinuation.

The little girl doesn't control the Instagram page or ask for presents does she. She is merely a passenger.

Thank you!

You got me 🙄

Yabu to watch any youtube channel/follow anyone on Insta who uses their child/children (whether disabled or not) for financial gain.

Many of these families share endless details of their kids lives (birthdays, medical details, details about adoption/fostering, details about when they start their periods/puberty) Filming their every moment which, once uploaded online is effectively online forever more. Its grim and needs stopping.
Take a look at for example the Dad Challenge Podcast on you tube - Josh has done LOTS of videos trying to expose the nasty culture that is family channels on you tube (Insta isnt what he focuses on but its very often the same thing - parents exploiting their kids for financial gain)

I agree with you OP. Lovely for child to receive gifts but a disabled child should not be put in front of the camera (nor any child) to make content. A blanket message of gratitude occasionally from the parent is absolutely fine but not to force a performative thank you from the child every time they receive a gift. The parent will still monetise off those and I disagree with any parent using content of their children to make money on any platform.

@Yfory snap.

I haven't come across any of that on any of the pages I follow and if I did I would soon be unfollowing.

What these parents are doing on the page I'm referring to stood out as inappropriate as, like you speak of, it feels like the little girl is being exploited for gain.

Reported. I think naming this child is cruel and unnecessary.

Well done jobsworth, the page has almost half a million followers. 👏

It looks like she is signed up to a talent agency so lots of people are making money and she has no idea. Is she safe, well cared for yes, hopefully, it does feel a little exploitative though.

Straight away guessed which account you meant OP. I agree, there's something quite jarring and off about it all.

One thought that springs to mind is how odd it is that people see accounts such as these and still feel compelled to send gifts, despite clearly seeing that the child already has anything she could wish for, whilst there are thousands of children like her who have next to nothing. The world is a strange place.

I noticed the talent agency link too but I'm not sure what that's about or whether they're just involved in managing the page.

I think the followers send all of these gifts as they want to recreate the excitement they saw when she'd opened something previously. It gets boring for a child though doesn't it?

I know with my three, by the time they've opened a handful of presents they can't be bothered anymore and feel overwhelmed. Esp my disabled DS. The little girl on the page must be bored senseless being filmed opening boxes every day.

There should be stricter laws around this kind of child exploitation.

When some of these Youtube children grow up there are going to be lawsuits brought against the exploiting parents.