To ask would you exploit your kids on YouTube for millions of £s?

[Laalaalaand]

My kids like to watch the channel vlad and niki on YouTube. The parents make between 45 and 60 million dollars a year off their YouTube channels which exclusively feature the children. They seem like sweet kids but they must spend a lot of their time filming all these videos. They have action figures of themselves. They live in the lap of luxury and want for nothing materially but i don't think even if i knew how to make these videos etc that would make me use my children to make money. Those videos will be there forever.

Vlad and niki are the two older children and they seem to be featuring less but the parents have had two younger children and the majority of the newer videos seem to focus on the two little ones.

The cynic in me says that maybe the older children have had enough of it, so that's why they're not doing it or maybe they're not "cute" enough now they're pre teens as the target audience is small children.

Would you do it for millions of quid? Could be argued that they're not doing anything actually harmful to the children so why not if it means the children end up rich beyond their wildest dreams.

My daughter likes to follow a family on YouTube that post frequently. I recall one episode where the daughter so obviously wanted to cry because she hadn't performed as well as she'd hoped in a gymnastics competition, but she couldn't cry because there was a camera in her face. No way would I want to make my children feel like that. So no, I wouldn't.

Of course, I'd do it for £500 a month.

There are literally millions of chikdren involved in child labour worldwide.

I'm not saying it's OK to use children to generate income via you tube either, like two wrongs dont make a right obviously.

but there are lots ofchildren working in agriculture, mining cobalt, factories etc who don't get an education.

Instagram as well mainly for freebies. Either the parents just don't care about the effect on their children or they do it anyway which is even worse.

Looking at the Inghams they have done well out of it but not millions. I feel for the eldest after years on camera. It appears at 19 she has no qualifications, or friends and just goes around with the family. Am sure she is happy.

Just feels a bit wings clipped and damaging to me. I maybe wrong.

No, absolutely not. I don't post my children on social media at all.

Look into the whole Wren Eleanor thing to understand my reasons.

YouTube has an analytics page that any channel creator can look at, that shows the age and sex of viewers.

And as you say, it will be grim. Children and families try to grow their channels but are they thinking about who is watching and why?

YouTube fails to keep adults out of children’s spaces, just as it fails to keep children out of adult spaces.

There was an article the other day saying age verification through facial recognition technology might be one way forward. But I don’t see how that could practically be enforced.

I feel for the eldest after years on camera. It appears at 19 she has no qualifications, or friends and just goes around with the family

Having no proper education seems pretty common for those exploiting their children online. It seems quite normal for them to be removed from school or 'homeschooled' so they can continue to make content.

For millions, hell yeah!

No, and I really hope the laws change to give these children protection. Children working in the film industry need a certain amount of time off and to do their school work, kids exploited online by their thick, talentless parents can be, and often are, filmed around the clock.

No.
People need to stop mindlessly watching all this "content". While there's a demand for it people will supply it and its so damaging to children.

This. And I can't understand why more people don't see how very wrong this is.

No absolutely not.

I agree that it should be illegal to post children on social media. None of them can consent. They don’t know the implications of being filmed in bikinis, or being filmed potty training. Their parents use them like performing monkeys and it’s absolutely awful. It’s quite telling how many of them are pulled from school, too.

Governments across the globe need to get a grip of it,

I am not on any social media myself at all and even if I were, I would never share images or video of my children. So an absolute big fat no from me. I am actually a very open person in an one to one and with people I am connected to in real life, but that is within my control. Once something is out there on social media there is none. For someone to choose to this for themselves is one thing, but to do this to someone else without their consent is wrong. To monetise it is appalling. And as to 'children are labouring in mines' etc argument, that is also wrong but in the vast majority of cases it is in the context of family deprivation, not the context of wealth creation, a a very different proposition.

I agree. I think the psychology of it is all very interesting. I watched something with the youngest of the Kardashians talking about how hard it's been being in the public eye since she was a pre-teen and dealing with all the commentary around her looks and her body as she grows up, yet at the very same time she's putting her own kids under the exact same spotlight and from a much younger age! I can't wrap my head around it.

You would still have no control or idea about how their image would be used, so you'd have to hope it wouldn't come back to bite you (or them) in the future

I agree. Even so far as allowing children to even access social media so freely, let alone be on it themselves.

There will be consequences even beyond what we predict now.

The sad thing is people watch this shit. If there was no audience, then no money would be made and the channels would dry up.

It would be much easier for the social media companies to be the ones that crack down on it. Rather than try to police every smartphone user in the world.

For starters these sites need to employ people whose sole job it is to identify and shut down any accounts run by children who are under the legal age to use the site. Of course a lot of this can be automated but then humans can review and zap.

But they don’t even do that, and there are millions of kids using social media sites despite being under 13.

Whether that age should be higher is another issue. Australia I think is planning to raise it to 16.

I'm not sure which of these platforms shows the number of saved or bookmarked posts. I came across a video discussing this sort of thing, similarly to what a PP said upthread about males watching these videos. The video highlighted some staggering numbers of the amount of times an ostensibly innocent picture of a little girl eating ice cream or on a bouncy castle were bookmarked. Why would 50k people need to save a picture like that? It really begs the question what is going on here? I find the whole thing rather sickening tbh, I can't understand what's interesting about watching a family decide what to have for breakfast or something equally mundane.

I wouldn't exploit my son for all the money in the world. I think it should be banned personally

Exactly. If I were really broke I might do it. not otherwise.

So many issues.
My kids watch these 'families'. I have tried having the conversation about consent and how the children who are under ten might not want lots of videos of them around when they're older. But then again, there have always been child stars, the Olsen twins etc who started filming at 3.
What gets me is the inequality of it. So Vlad and Nikki clearly were very wealthy children before they started, living in Dubai in a gated community. They get sent literally boxes of free toys a day and most of their lives seem focused around getting new toys.
I can't imagine how it must feel being shown constant videos of extreme wealth if you are a kid in a council flat with nothing. It's a bit like us flicking through the Argos catalogue as kids but 24/7 and even more immersive. My two don't get very jealous but there definitely have been times where they have asked for things way out of my price range because of social media. I said no obviously.

These kids need their earnings ring fenced and to be in a union at least. Same for the children of reality TV stars. I think the age of reckoning is coming for exploitative parents.

Just had to google vlad and nikki and wtf?! I cant imagine it appealing. It seems so staged and the way they talk all scripted and twee is annoying as hell!

Would i used my kids on social media to make money? Maybe. But probably not. My child's face hasnt ever been on social media and won't be until she can consent to it and fully understand.

I do question parents who do this. Even the ones that aren't making millions. Having embarassing stories and videos within your family is one thing and often bad enough, but making them available to anyone forever, hmm not sure I could do that.

I work in a primary school. Earlier this year we had a talk about online safety. One for KS1, one for KS2, one for parents and one for staff. In one part the presenters showed still images of social media stars and asked the children to name them. Many of the children from reception up recognised these people but very few of the adults did.

Social media and children is worrying in both directions. I worry for the children taking part but I worry more for the children being exposed to these random people.