As a society, we have an odd fascination with watching the lives of others.
Whether watching others do daily chores or reaching milestones, this content allows viewers to engage with people they may never meet by liking, sharing, and following the poster.
The public’s interest in reality-based content is not new, with Candid Camera, the first reality show airing in 1948 showcasing pranks to unsuspecting civilians.
But as reality programs outgrew television, making its way onto forums like YouTube and later TikTok, so have the creators.
From conception, creators are using their children to step into a different tax bracket, without understanding, caring, and about the repercussions that follow.
TikTok influencer, Jacquelyn, going by @wren.eleanor, has amassed 17 million followers documenting her young daughter, Wren.
While the content was seemingly harmless with Wren wearing children’s clothing and making faces on camera, viewers began to notice that the thumbnails and content were getting increasingly inappropriate.
The alleged fetish-bait content showed the three-year-old in dresses sitting on whoopie cushions and consuming various phallically shaped food items.
Each video has hundreds of thousands of saves and has been reposted on Reddit, X, Facebook, and Tumblr, expanding its predatory reach.
Jacquelyn posted a video on Oct. 5, 2023, stating images of Wren’s likeness were not found on any adult websites, nor was her intention to exploit her daughter to predators.
Jacquelyn continues to post questionable content about Wren, only now with the comments turned off, ensuring whistleblowers are silenced.
I understand not all family vloggers are like this, but the insidious nature of filming your child knowing that a large number of their followers may have ulterior motives is vile.
As creators post videos of them through their pregnancy to birth, the audience develops a parasocial relationship with both them and the unborn child.
As a result, the children on these pages are born into the public watching, judging, and commenting on their every move like a new-age version of The Truman Show.
Being filmed constantly also comes with serious privacy issues.
With no child labour laws for children working in social media in Canada or the U.S., children work as many hours as their parents permit.
This lack of government-mandated protection allows parents to overwork, and often underpay, their children simply because they can.
In The Dark Side of YouTube Family Vlogging by Rachel Dunphy, former child vlogger “Allie” recounts her mother forcing her to film and edit into the early hours of the day to provide for her family.
This lack of protection allows for children to be exploited by not only their parents but also the public as the images live on the internet forever.
U.S. House Bill 1627 hopes to ensure that children filmed and/or starring in online content are properly compensated and maintain privacy upon legal age.
The bill is the first attempt in the United States legislation to provide safeguarding for minor children presented predominately on social media sites.
It’s something Canada should follow suit on.
While I think adults should be able to post whatever content they want on their page, I feel the moment a child is involved, boundaries need to be in place.
Parents using their children for fame and fortune is, unfortunately, not a new concept, but how they do so, passively encouraging predatory behaviour has become increasingly concerning.