Most of us think of our posts about our kids similarly to how we feel about sharing the same information with our friends or acquaintances at the grocery store. After all, for most of us, our friends and acquaintances are the audience those posts will reach.
For some parents, though, the goal of each post is to have the largest reach possible. They post publicly, and they want their followers to share.
In these cases, kids’ life experiences are monetized, and they may not even be aware or have the opportunity to refuse.
The Original Influencer Parents
Reality TV families could arguably be considered the first generation of what we’d now call influencer parents.
For a single, very public example, consider the Duggars, the family from 19 Kids & Counting. The kids grew up on television, while the parents described their show as a “ministry” intended to influence others’ religious beliefs.
Now, several of those kids have grown to adulthood and spoken out about the effect of their public childhoods, and some have even made the conscious decision to keep their own children’s faces off the internet so they don’t share the experience of being recognized in public.
For instance, Jinger (nee Duggar) Vuolo occasionally posts photos of her daughters. Still, never of their faces, and her sister Joy-Anna Forsyth recently announced a break from her family YouTube channel in part to consider her children’s privacy.
Mommy Bloggers’ Kids Are Growing Up
Some children of online influencers have indicated they, too, are uncomfortable with the publicity they never chose.
There are many shades of gray in privacy and disclosure. For instance, talking about the woes of potty training is sharing the struggles of parenting, but talking about your older child wetting the bed could invade their privacy and make them feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.
One “former content kid,” as Cam Barrett describes herself in testimony to lawmakers in Maryland, says her mother made very private details, such as her menstrual cycle, very public. Now, she’s fighting for legislation to protect kids from oversharing.
She posted the below video on her TikTok, sharing that testimony and her experience with the world.
The Darkest Side Of Child Content
The range of child content goes all the way from the Duggars above who share varying amounts about their family and children and benefit from brand partnerships, to the most extreme horrors of the parents who knowingly post exploitative content for child predators to enjoy.
The latter group is explicitly cited in recent lawsuits against TikTok by state Attorneys General, who hope to pressure the video-sharing app to shut down content in that range and make other changes to protect children.
Where Is The Line, Legally Speaking?
Some states are passing legislation addressing child influencers. In Illinois and California, new laws require parents to set aside a certain percentage of any money made from their children’s online appearances, and NBC Bay Area reported that if the kids don’t receive these funds, they can sue.
Some types of oversharing could potentially fall under existing laws regarding child exploitation (such as the content curated for predators).
Other content could conceivably be argued as abuse or evidence of abuse or neglect. In 2017, for example, Michael and Heather Martin faced charges of child neglect after their family’s YouTube channel’s “prank” content raised alarms from viewers. The videos included one of Michael spraying his son’s room with disappearing ink and criticizing him for the mess and another of him encouraging one child to slap another, according to The Guardian.
Aside from these areas where content may fall under existing laws, there don’t seem to be any specific laws addressing the types of content that influencer parents can release publicly.
Where Is The Line For Our Child’s Best Interests?
Until there are clearer lines in legislation, each parent will have to make the best decisions for their kids.
However, when we listen to kids raised as content, it’s pretty clear that oversharing is damaging. Influencer parents should have regular conversations with their children about what is okay to share and erring on the side of caution when uncertain.
We should all be considering whether this is information we’d have wanted the world to know about us when we were kids, or teens, or, in fact, even as adults. We should be considering whether it’s information that could hurt our kids if it becomes more public than intended.
These suggestions apply whether we’re sharing with thousands of paying followers, our circles on or off social media, or even extended family — but especially online, where things can become very public very fast.
