What a waste of time. Take your kids to the library, take them outside for a long walk, take them to volunteer at an animal shelter. Turn off the social media.
23
Demonstrating no skills except consumption and display. The Kardashian Universe. A symptom of Trumpistry.
15
I used to think no buzzword could be more inane than "influencer," until I read this article which features the even more inane word, "kidfluencer." God help us.
16
Kids appear on tv commercials for as long as there is tv, nothing wrong with this as long as the parents are not breaking any law. There are also the family influencers -- 'the bucket list family' comes to mind, that share their little children's traveling online while obviously also promoting brands, I find them cute and entertaining.
Reason #987 to limit social media use by children. And adults. And anyone with a brain.
17
Like the Zoolander baby, with his first “look.”
1
This is absolutely sickening. These parents and brands are exploiting these kids. The kids have no clue what they are doing, and they are wasting time doing photo shoots instead of playing with friends, using their imaginations, being active, AKA Being a Kid. These influencers are also damaging to the kids who watch them - making the watchers think they need all the latest toys and that their lives are awful in comparison. I have a 5.5 and 7 year old and we do not own a tablet, do not watch Youtube and I text pictures of my kids to their grandparents & aunts/uncles. They are the only ones who REALLY care anyway. To other parents - break up with YouTube and the tablets and enjoy your child unplugged.
13
How about raising questions about the people who follow them?
8
Using children as "influencers" is not restricted by Child Entertainment Laws and they should be monitored. Parents have taken advantage of their own children. Think of Jackie Coogan, Brooke Shields, Macaulay Culkin, etc. The thought of exposing a child to anyone on the internet is for one reason only - the parents want to make an easy buck.
5
I am so disgusted by all of this. Influencers, "kidfluencers," all of it. And that's coming from a millennial. I read this article and found myself sitting there just feeling gross. We are really setting kids up to think that piles of toys are going to fall from the sky? That you can make $20k in a matter of minutes? What a waste. And for adults that watch this garbage? Embarrassing. I Googled this 'Kyler and Mad' mentioned in the article and couldn't watch more than 30 seconds of one of their videos. Can someone explain to me plainly how this is entertaining?
14
I am embarrassed to be from this country.
9
We all should be. Just consider this: Our "royalty" is the family of an ex-chamber maid to a silly hotel heiress.
And we've elected an intellectually challenged TV personality to lead our country.
It all fits the same pattern...
7
The kids are actors, without the protection of child labor laws. They are, in short, a lawsuit waiting to happen. These kids need to sue their parents for back pay as soon as they turn 18.
9
The pervasive nature of social media networks have negligible benefits, while we witness day-in and day-out how disastrous they can be in society. Consider the following:
- the ease in which terrorist organizations and hate groups have a platform for recruiting/spreading their message.
- the effects on adolescent development (why are so many kids anxious these days?)
- the funneling of information that primes users to be manipulated by propaganda
- the shadiness of the companies behind the platforms
- last, but certainly not least, a contributor for why we have a reality star/failed businessman as president.
Is being able to see what your former high school classmates ate for lunch every day that important that we let these problems go unchecked?
Delete your social media accounts.
4
Parents need to get a real job instead of exploiting their children for their own financial gain. This is gross. This is a product of a generation of children who are now parents who's parents focussed all of their attention upon them and now they are doing the same. But this time they are marketing their children. Life is now just one pose after another rather than living. Whatever happened to being outside of yourself and finding fulfillment in work that you did that helped build a community, a state, a nation? Oh that's right our commander in chief is a Brand builder and that is all that matters.
11
My daughter asked for an agent for her 8th birthday. She told me that was the only way she would be famous by 10. I told her to keep trying out for school plays and she could hire her own agent at 18. Her quest for fame died out by middle school. She is now in high school focused on normal high school life. She babysits for money rather than working on product placements. We laugh about her early celebrity aspirations. She thanks me for not fueling her fame desire.
11
We were once those parents who said stuff like "No social media until 16!" A combo of continuous whining from said kid and sheer fatigue changed that. Even so, we do our best to restrict screen time and instill a love of reading and the outdoors to our 12-year old. Oh, and lots of praying.
2
We sure need lots of praying. This celebrity culture landed us with an intellectually challenged TV personality in the WH...
Exploitative and immoral - I can't stop shaking my head at parents who have put their 4 year old child's entire life on line - including her birth video! for the almighty dollar. While already actively avoiding Walmart, I will add Melissa and Doug and Mattel to the list of brands I avoid for reprehensible business practices. And YouTube will be even more closely monitored in my home going forward, I can't imagine the endless cries of "I want! I need! Everleigh has one!" that "haul" videos must inspire in the influencers' followings.
6
Let's do a follow-up with these kids later in life. If prior and similar dynamics in the TV industry are any indication, a disproportional number child stars eventually up with some major issues later in life. It's not healthy for children to grow up thinking they are somehow special or a celebrity just because someone else decides to make money off of them regardless of the medium.
8
Hope all that money will be enough to pay for future therapy.
5
Gross. The parents are making money hand over fist on their kids. No different than prostitution. These kids cant/ aren’t making these choices for themselves... but when they’re 20 they’re stuck with all this video and audio footage that will follow them for the rest of their lives. My son who is 9 likes to watch these toy opening videos, which I always tell him to turn off (I will just restrict it all now); what’s sad in these “play” videos is that clearly the young kids “acting” in these (at their parents’ urging) can’t even understand that dad being “attacked” by aliens (prob dad’s friends dressed up as aliens) is fake. But the terror in their eyes and their confusion is obvious. These kids are being traumatized in many ways, the long term effects we can only begin to imagine.
8
Do any of these parents consider if this is safe for their children? There are people who prey on kids who are constantly in the public eye-it seems like child endangerment to me.
5
' “If it wasn’t for Everleigh and Ava, I would not have what I have today,” [Ms. Foley] said.'
Well, there it is right there. It's not about the kids, what they want, what's good for them. It's so the parents can get what THEY want.
17
Would like to be wrong, but this won’t end well for the children.
26
This story makes me glad I grew up in the era of View Master and Mr. Potato Head.
35
The irony seems lost on these “parents” who think they are giving their children the greatness of money, fame, and social media currency; when, sadly, they have robbed them of one of life’s most priceless gifts: childhood.
29
FACT CHECK: why do you say influencers are not considered actors under CA law? NOT TRUE. The California law includes advertising so the minute they get paid for their appearance, they are WORKING. They DO have to have Coogan accounts, work hours, studio teachers and the like. In CA, 100% of the money a child earns is theirs -- yes, 15% goes into a blocked trust, but 100% must be accounted for the child. Most of the influencers that are in California are breaking the law in several different directions.
Some companies are trying to get around it by making contracts with the parents, rather than the chldren. The problem there? It is a bit of forced slavery -- surely it is exploitation. THAT is your story.
Our organization supports professional child performers and their families, and we realize that it can be done safely and handled well -- so that the children get all their earnings.
But most influencers are not doing that.
www.bizparentz.org
15
This was my main concern: that parents where enslaving their children, unlawfully. Thank you for some needed clarity on this issue.
1
It should be illegal to monetize your children, but the bigger issue is that that these parents are putting their kids’ lives online without their consent. How will these kids feel in ten or twenty years? They won’t be able to erase the online image that their parents have created for them. And how could they not feel like their parents sold them out? I would imagine they will feel more like their parents’ commodity and less like their child. This story is heartbreaking.
26
Saddest bit for me, as no 4 year old or even less 8 month old twins can have the knowledge to run a sponsorship: it's the parents that are monetizing and commercializing their own children.
Wow! A toddler sponsorship can pay $10,000-25,000 dollars. This reeks of parents exploiting and commoditizing their own children to gain followers and then the resultant monetary payouts.
Perhaps Instagram and YouTube should ban accounts that are "purported" to be by children but are actually run by their parents. Children under 13 are not supposed to have accounts anyway.
Will the twins be happy with what their parents have done when they are 15, 20, 30?
14
@Bruna
Once word got out that the family of David from the Dentist paid off their mortgage...
Marketing to kids, more than using kids to advertise to those kids, is immoral. Using kids, well, to use kids is just efficient immorality.
Most people lack the courage to use such a strong word, but immorality is the sand in the mortar of a consumer society.
8
There are some moments when I’m glad I don’t have kids. Reading articles like this is one of them.
I feel sorry for these kids, and their parents are deeply exploitative. Some people simply are unfit and shouldn’t have children and while that’s been true ever since people started having them, it seems much worse now. A lot of parents seem to selfish and narcissistic.
If this is what it means to have kids today, or if this is what average parents have to fight against, then maybe I’ll skip the parenting boat. I can’t imagine spending so much time battling against social media and trying to convince my own kid that their life is worth something and worth living, despite the fact that it isn’t being posted to YouTube. Good grief.
11
There is nothing that cannot be commodified now, even one's children it would seem.
11
Though I think it's reprehensible, I can understand the drive of parents to exploit their children to make a buck.
What I can't fathom is how empty does your life have to be to "follow" these children on social media?
15
Sapna, this is Greg Alkalay, founder of batteryPOP and the Kidfluencers platform (and owners of the Kidfluencers trademark.) We're committed to 100% safe and responsible kid influencer programs. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of this space, and yes there are some, we could also be looking at the positive impact this can have on kids and families already creating kid-appropriate content for digital platforms. I'd like the opportunity to discuss this further with you.
1
If you really want to prove your so called virtuous motivation, do it as a non profit public service. Take the money out and see how long parents will be providing these so-called opportunities to their meal tickets.
5
@galkalay: do the kids get paid, in accordance with the law? All other issues are irrelevant. Do they have ALL of the protections that child actors normally get? if not, then your organization is promoting slavery.
2
Teaching children to say anything they don't understand or believe to prepare them for politics, maybe the presidency.
5
The rise of social medial influencers is a bubble fueled by unscrupulous corporations and know-nothing unemployables who will soon learn Youtube videos and Fashion Nova plugs are not a substitute for actual skills in the long-term. From this vantage point, modern technocapitalism is a farce. The attention economy is just another act in this tragedy. The ending isn't going to be pretty.
7
What’s disturbing is she doesn’t really understand what she’s doing, while the parents understand perfectly well. She’s doing these things and the grown ups are making money and neglecting the potential effects on her, especially psychologically. It seems ignorant, exploitative, greedy, and financially desperate, like they’re “using” their own child to make money! It makes you wonder, is this right or legal? It just seems exploitative! But the money she’s making also helps provide the life and roof over her head she has! It seems like she’s more or less like the little kid sent out to work or beg in war zone or poorer country. These things do affect these “actors” or reality stars, as showed by the one survivor guy who committed suicide after the show. He’d been edited into a character he really wasn’t and just had issues with how he was perceived as a result of the show. In fact, some of these “reality” shows are reportedly anything but the reality! They’re supposedly actually heavily edited, with unrelated parts and pictures often pieced together to create a narrative or say something that in fact just wasn’t said or implied or done! They record real things, then go and rearrange things in the editing studio to say something different, and create characters and things that often don’t really exist!
4
Parents — boycott all brands that use child influencers. That's the only way to get the message across that this is sick and damaging.
12
OK, I guess?
There is something profoundly shallow and narcissistic about this in particular and self-described "influencers" in general.
We live in a very sad time right now.
5
This article talks about child labor laws, privacy, the power of big money and so forth.
What's sorely missing is the decadent consumerist culture that allows these things to happen.
"Kid influencers" is just a symptom of our society's general lack of values and lack of good parenting.
It makes me sick.
11
Frankly, shame on the people at the companies who sat in meetings and decided - willingly - that it was ok to employ children as "influencers."
10
Kids shouldn't even be allowed to follow social media, let alone become it.
11
Exploitation of children by adults is an uglier, venal side of the human animal, sadly on the same scale but differently located along the abuse spectrum. Hope after the lights are gone, parents have put enough $$ aside for therapy, but—if they were wise enough to do that, they probably wouldn’t be stage parenting their kids in the first place....
5
I frequently read biographies of “Old Hollywood” stars, and the stories of child actors exploited by greedy parents rarely end happily. See Judy Garland.
7
If you sell your child to advertisers will they believe you ever loved them when they grow up? I don't believe this should be legal at least until they age of consent for work. I'd also really like if it were illegal to sell drugs on television. I guess the only solution were marketers rule is to turn of the dumb set and avoid Facebook, twitter, and the social media universe.
2
These kids are going to grow up with an insufferable personality. (Take it from a school teacher who knows.)
16
The hand-wringers present should remember that there are no "influencers" without the influenced, i.e., adults who control the cash and presumably their own children. If you're a parent, do your job, or certain busybody "progressives" will clamor to do it for you.
1
Fake sleepovers with fake glee over toys they don't own. It's all fake, it's all pretense. An apt commentary on our times.
9
I love all this solicitude for children. They are stronger than most adults. They can decide for themselves. They are souls being shut down by the fearbound. Try riding in the same boat. Get to know your enemies. Repent.
I read a lot of news. It takes a lot to really get my goat.
This is beyond revolting.
16
These parents need to to take some time for some serious self examination. Their greed and need for attention is being paid for on the back of their children...pretty sad.
7
In my mind, the parents of these kids are manipulative opportunists who are turning their children into marketing tools and stunting their minds.
11
Can’t imagine what this will do to these little kids psyches as most of them age out of cuteness and novelty. I fear the parents will up the pressure on them. I bet the kids will never see much of the money either.
Makes me feel bad for having so enjoyed that “Charlie Bit Me” clip, which perhaps was too early to be greatly monetized.
Never watched many others and remember hearing about the child under anesthesia one and thinking that was horrible. Maybe it wasn’t worse than poor old Charlie and his brother though.
1
I chose not to parent - but when my sister’s kid was born, I knew how I would help that child grow.
Not to be a Viet Names orphan like little Kimme (né Rosensweig) Doonesbury, whose first words in English were “Big Mac.”
Every gift I got the kid was non-gender-role oriented, more importantly, books, (mainly Dr Seuss, later, sending da kid to parents’ collection of JRRT and Lewis Carroll, art supplies, the old-style no commercial ties LEGO, no toy connected with a book, TV show or movie - nothing that came with a set of weekly cartoon-taught rules on “how” to play with the toy - beit a Barbie, GI-Joe or Smurf.
Go to the toy department of any Big Discount Box - and you’ll find rows of toys that are offshoots of Media Land, mainly TV, the successors to radio show premiums, secret decoder badges, stuff that taught you exactly HOW to play - not a random doll, but (and Barbie was the first) “action figure”, where each week, you were told this one’s likes and dislikes, that one’s voice and vices ...
Media Land began with the grandparents of the Internet generation, who received their indoctrination into the world, first with decoder badges telling them “drink more Ovaltine” then ads telling them what toys to ask for, finally how to play - not to invent stories of their own but to act out the adventures they watched each weekend.
Now things have come full circle - da kids are da media. PRODUCED by parents, with a place on the world stage pre-designed. Here’s your life script, kid!
1
Agree with most of the comments. I'll say it is easy to blame the parents here though. The kind of money discussed must be challenging to ignore. Imagine being able to completely provide for your child's education before they are 5. I'm sure the allure is overwhelming. I think they are making bad choices but I can appreciate where their decisions are coming from.
Let's direct more fire at the corporates who know exactly how they are circumventing child labor laws and regulations controlling limitations on advertising to children.
12
@Peter
Yes, but will they put the money toward the kid’s education. And what psychological damage will have been done to the child by the time they are to attend college?
3
Nothing wrong with this whatsoever. Children, athletes, scholars, students, et al, have been exploited by individuals and corporations for hundreds of years in this country, USA. Schools don’t pay athletes, yet many billions. Same for thinkers or artists. My school wants to use my daughter’s image for their website to attract students. That should be compensated.
2
The horrific story of Michael Jackson, the subject of a documentary on HBO this weekend, should be a warning to parents who cravenly create money making machines out of their kids. I worry about these children but also those on the other end who are consuming this stuff on social media.
9
Nothing says America in 2019 like the phenomena described in this article. If it makes money, it's good, period, the end.
16
Thank you. Why would you even let your children access YouTube? They shouldn't even watch TV. What's wrong with reading a book or playing with Lego?
4
I can't wait to see the videos once these kids enter school. Study. Go to the library. I hope the parents are just as energetic.
2
One moment we're creating fake hysteria with hoaxes like the "momo challenge" that are supposedly preying on children. The next we are turning our children into corporate shills.
This is upsetting. What happens when this child grows up and looks back on her brand focused 'childhood?' What are we as adults teaching her and other children when when we privilege fame, followers, and the needs of corporations over our children?
Before her brain has fully developed she is making money for corporations who are using her age, body and image to their advantage. Will she grow up to be a critical thinker or a citizen unable to imagine a world beyond the needs and views of corporations and faux benign tech companies?
Children deserve adults who honor their agency and individuality.Isn't this why we made child labor laws?
13
This is old hat. There are a few players joining forces here: parents trying to bank off their kids; amoral advertisers and their proxy seeking new ways to manipulate potential customers.
5
Born in 1960. Highly skilled in technology. No Facebook, no Instagram. I cannot understand how easily and readily individuals will destroy their own boundaries of privacy and expose themselves, and unconscionable to me, their children, to the public with no control or concern over who can turn them into entertainment of a form determined only by the watcher. They are not your followers. They are your watchers. Is that another young tween girl watching your daughter? Or a grown man with only one hand on his device? And do all of these so called influencers understand they are playing in a market that has no barriers to entry? The worst kind of market share to attempt to defend? The most dangerous market to plop your monetized child into and allow them to offload their worth and agency to because there’s always the next cute kid. Ask several generations of dysfunctional and broken women who once were unfortunate enough to spend time as the object of societal desire- until the next pretty young thing arrives. And they always do. And the eye moves on.
22
Amen, brother. As my late beloved wife said to me when I went to a Facebook link someone had sent me and so had to establish an account to view: “There’s five minutes of your life you’ll never get back.” I’m prouder now of my still-outstanding 98 “Friend” requests. And some of them really are my friends. I just don’t need to share my privacy the way many of them seem to. I’d rather they come by the house or ask me out to dinner.
3
How does a kid's mind develop when they are taught to be aware of a camera, to say and wear and do certain things?
How does the mind develop when introduced to commercial work instead of learning and playing outside, with other kids? How helpful is this type of exercise to intellectual development?
Will any of these children be lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers?
11
“If it wasn’t for Everleigh and Ava, I would not have what I have today,” she said.
That about sums it up.
37
The psychological impact on these children won’t be fully realized for years, but there will be an impact, starting with a distorted view of their own self-worth. Set aside a chunk of those earnings for therapy.
13
Can someone explain the difference between this and slavery? Exploiting a child for profit is simply wrong, even if you are the parent. Perhaps even more so, parents are supposed to protect and nurture their children.
6
Every day, I find more and more reasons to be glad that we don't do social media.
23
The other day I opened youtube because my kid (age 5) wanted to hear a particular song she liked from a movie. I let her watch a couple more short videos, and by the third one, all the "choices" (the suggestions that scroll on the bottom of the screen) were "unwrappings" of toys. I cut it off - I don't want her feeling bad about things she doesn't have or need, but I despair thinking of all the ways she'll be convinced in her lifetime through advertising everywhere that there are always things missing in her life.
8
@Sarah
Spot on! Most families don't live a life of constant consumption. Many can barely afford gifts for birthdays and Christmas, so why allow our children to be exposed to this delusional mindset that happiness is opening up new presents all the time? These kids are getting paid 4 and 5 figures to open presents on camera, to 'influence' other kids to harass their parents into buying toys they probably can't afford even if they wanted to spoil the kids.
You are right to cut the videos. Now that my daughter is a teen I wish I could go back to a time when I had more control over her screen time.
7
I am not sure what is more disconcerting - the fact that kids do this, or that parents allow their kids to watch kids do this.
I have friends with small children, and those children will watch videos of other children (or, disturbingly, adults) "unboxing" a toy and playing with it. They'll watch this for hours, while the toys they own languish in a corner.
I wonder what this does to their developing minds, and what skills they aren't learning (imagination? sharing? MOVING?) while they watch someone else live a false life.
It's so strange, and so very sad.
16
Born in 1959. I don’t have children but have children in my life. I read this and was instantly depressed. I looked at the parents, read their comments, and can only guess that they figure this is a financial opportunity not to be passed up. Didn’t this kind of thing start a few years back with the kid in the back seat of the minivan who was coming out of anesthetic after a dental appointment? His father monetized the video with advertising and made enough money, he said, to pay for the kid’s college. I hope the people in this article invest that money so it’s available for therapy later.
11
Don’t expect our legislators to provide effective oversight. They’re not dissimilar to these kids and their Machiavellian parents: ready and willing to sell out for corporate dollars.
What fate for these kids when the likes and followers move on? They’ll just be an empty shell no longer filled with other peoples brands, products and “values”. Will they like what they see in the mirror then?
4
My 9 yo son is a very part-time actor and we started an Instagram account for him, posting innocent pictures and cute captions to help him connect with the industry and other kid actors. It was fun and we enjoyed taking the pictures and writing funny things about what we were doing. It was bonding and creative and sometimes helpful in his career. Within four months he had 4,500 followers. It wasn’t until I learned who all these people were that I realized what was happening. It was frightening because the comments were pretty innocent at first, moms saying hi, other kid actors reaching out. A few industry people. Then I got the professional account and learned 85% of his followers were adult men. 4,300 men from other countries, mostly the Middle East. Apparently word had spread my kid was cute and the “network” found him. I took him off right away and never went back. I have to think these parents know who’s fetishizing their kids. Maybe it hasn’t occurred to them either or maybe they don’t care, but kids on social media is like throwing them to the sharks. Either you know and leave to protect your child, you know and don’t care who spends their time looking at and talking about your child, or worse, you know exactly who your audience is and are making money off it. Sponsors ought to check Instagram kid audiences before they sponsor or accept responsibility for child exploitation.
57
Now that is a real concern
3
YouTube is not a safe platform for children (and by extension advertisers). Beyond the comments from pedophiles mentioned here, sociopaths create videos with inappropriate content that slips by YouTube's automated censors. YouTube automatically serves it up. YouTube says it's taking care of the problem, but its efforts are not sufficient. Just the other day my 6-year-old son burst into tears when suddenly the parents in a cartoon were violently killed. That's nothing compared to the video he saw when he was about 3 years old that showed a symbolic representation of a deeply disturbing violent act against an infant. My son was too young to have any idea what he was watching. Who knows what else he's seen that I didn't happen to witness. We recently purchased an inexpensive children's tablet computer for him that supposedly shows only a small selection of YouTube videos that have been reviewed by humans, among other vetted content. So far this seems to be working well.
7
This is nearly the most depressing thing I’ve ever read. I hope that by the time my kids are old enough, social media has been really recognized for what it is (brain changing and awful for society as a whole) and refined or eliminated.
13
What strikes me as dangerous is the false and superficial way in which these children will learn their supposed worth . It’s bad enough that teenagers are caught up in these endeavors , but with toddlers being a slave to a popularity site , channeled by their parents at the helm , I only can imagine the damage that may be caused in relation to their vulnerable gauge of self esteem .
I’m not a fan of Facebook . It is a superficial way of thinking the whole world loves you until it doesn’t . My kids just say I’m old fashioned. Maybe so , but it works for me .
16
Children should not have screens. Children should go outside and play in the fresh air. Communicate face to face with other children humans. This type of "influencing" could be considered brainwashing. My teenage son seems to know every expensive brand of shoe and jacket and I think it upsets him that he can't have expensive things.
It is sad that this is how the world is.
25
I was struck by the number of parents interviewed who stated without their kids (I’m paraphrasing) they wouldn’t be as far as they are. Financially? In online followers? The whole thing makes me very nervous.
I hope the finance and child labor laws that protect children in the entertainment industry catch up to cover kid influencers, and fast.
17
Influenzas[sic] are fraud and eye-roll material as it is, but turning mere kids into them is just wrong—but then wrong is what marketers do best.
Instead of helping marketers find novel ways to deceive viewers and further prove Bill Hicks right, YouTube ought to banish trolls and cranks while ending its Real Name harassment. Google's end to the hideous Google+ was a leap in the right direction, and YouTube now needs to encourage, not discourage, nicknames as well.
5
What is wrong with our society?
13
Oh my what will happen when she hits adulthood and finds that the world is not about the number of likes...how will she learn how to manage rejection and critical thinking?
8
@CC C - Unfortunately, I think this is what their adult lives will be like.
1
And soon these kids will “age out”, the cameras and the attention will disappear and their online popularity will fade away and yield to next hot kidfluencer.
This has nothing but future problems written all over it.
10
Get a degree in psychology, because there will be generations of these kids in dire need of therapy. I pity people who live a superficial life.
22
Full blame lies at the feet of the parents.
18
Right...let’s see how fast these parents “task,” “assign,” or otherwise use social media to monetize their kids without the $$ flowing.
2
Part of me thinks, “This is no different than any child in any TV commercial.”
The other part of me is nauseated by this degree of exploitation.
131
@Gregory Scott yeah but it is different because there are laws which establish the parameters in which child actors can work.
21
Except, all the protections child actors have from predatory parents stealing their income doesn't apply to YouTube actors.
4
Oh my god. Deep down, I wonder how these parents feel about the values they’re teaching their children.
2
Disappointed that Melissa and Doug decided to go this route.
18
Child soldiers in the war for money. Nothing more, nothing less.
We know where it begins, but where does it end? In a weird, 'harmless' way this practice could be termed a mild form of porn that's older than the hills and therefore deemed acceptable. More's the pity.
13
Let’s not forget how Facebook began: its concept was stolen and then perverted into a system to rate the “hotness” of college women by an unscrupulous little creep and his buddies. This set the tone for social media. (Incidentally, Instagram is owned by Facebook.) Now people are rating the “hotness” of children. Are women and children forever doomed to be viewed as commodities?
21
This makes me sad, plain and simple.
94
@Calleen de Oliveira
"This makes me sad"
Then the Times has done its job. How many adults reading this story are aware that they themselves have just been "influenced" by pros?
3
The commenters who profess to be outraged by the parental behavior described in the article forget how happy they were when as young children they were the subject of adulation as the kidfluencers are.
2
@Mike they may like it in the moment. That doesn't mean it's healthy.
6
i hope child welfare agencies are checking and making sure these exploited children are not being abused and having any monies earned misspent.
On the other hand America is governed by a 8 year old so I suppose somehow it's fitting current tastes are dictated by 4 year olds!
11
This is nothing but a lesson on the worlds of vanity and ego once again running amok. Absolutely nothing about how well (or not) these children are doing in school or how it affects their school lives or relationships with their teachers and schoolmates. How smart are these kids and do they ever promote their brains instead of their face? And why not advertise educational books for kids and other educational products?
6
Selling products, advertising, is the original fake news. TV advertising from the 1950s looks quaint now, with homemakers standing next to refrigerators. Now we have Viagra commercials during baseball games. It's advertising itself -- the purposeful inflating of products and presentation of a unreal world -- all for selling a car, a pizza, and now a Melissa & Doug puzzle, that's annoying and sometimes offensive. Since we can now eliminate watching many commercials (mute, pause, record), and print advertisement is "look or don't look, you're choice" companies have resorted to other platforms, and they will scoop up anybody that can help them. Mattel, Staples, are willing to pay these families and the families are willing to hawk their product. I hope while the parents are making their living doing this, that they are also telling their children that Mattel just wants to sell a Barbie doll, and that the Barbie doll is just a piece of plastic, not anything important in the real world. Getting that message across to children is hard enough without an invasion of commercials on social media. Kidfluencer? Just another word for "selling an inflated product".
Despicable. No other way of putting it. I grew up in the 80s and am ashamed of the way I would often behave with video games and other toys. Back then I was bombarded with TV ads. I can’t imagine if I had been exposed to this evil garbage.
7
We had to dial back and ultimately remove YouTube from devices our 4-year old daughter uses, after she binged hyperactive vids of people opening new toys (cursed LOL dolls!!)
After exposure to this kind of stuff for a week or two and cold turkey now for the same, the impact it made on her still looms large.
Paw Patrol deserves scrutiny if there are laws against characters playing with products - that went out the window when I caught the gang of pups hawking their video dance game throughout an episode.
PBS Kids to the rescue! Good luck out there parents!
8
It is illegal in other countries to market/advertise to children under a certain age. It's disgusting that we still allow this.
I'm not sure when folks will get the message, but capitalism doesn't care about you or your family or your children. It only cares if you can create some profit/value for shareholders. If you can't, you aren't worth anything to them.
Let's evolve, please. We can be so much better than this.
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@21st Century White Guy
You must have missed the part of the story where the kids earn an income. And who exactly are the evil "shareholders" you toss out there, as if by reflex? The parents? These are people participating in free speech and free markets. It must be the freedom that you and other socialists so fear and despise.
@Ed L. Why in the world would you call 21st Century White Guy a "socialist" based on his post? Also, I would suggest that you educate yourself on what socialism is because I don't think you understand it.
4
This is exploitation pure and simple. It's not an excuse to say the child enjoys it - children enjoy most things where they are the center of attention. They don't, however, have the ability to make informed and rational decisions. This is the job of parents who, in many cases vicariously - and financially - enjoy the process and the results.
2
Too young to articulate the ‘key deliverables that the brands want,’ and probably too young to understand exploitation..
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When many of these “sandwich-board kids” evolve out of the preternaturally cute stage and into their more problematic tweens and teens, and their fickle followers have moved on, I predict they will either be moving on to non-stop make-up tutorials or a therapist’s couch- perhaps both.
What these parents are aiding and abetting should be illegal.
3
As grandparent caretakers of our three year old boy , we are dismayed at how many of the youtube kid programs have devolved into nothing more than infomercials for toys. We have long since banned his watching Ryan opening toys or products like Pringles, and we now limit to old episodes ,his devoted watching of Toy Lab which since monitization, has devolved from being a truly charming series about a boy and his dad, “park rangering” dinosaurs, into another (dinosaur)toy opening “entertainmercial”
6
Child labor has often been a major force in the world economy throughout history. Before the Industrial Revolution, one of the main reasons for families to have more children was to provide more workers for the family economic unit. Then when modern machines came about, nimble young fingers were perfect for getting rid of jams in small machine gears—and they usually (but not always) were fast enough to get out of there when the machine started grinding again. In coal mines, so-called breaker boys as young as 5 or 6 would work among the men to separate the coal from the impurities (nimble fingers, again). Parents would submit faked birth certificates because children were supposed to be at least 8, and later 12, to be able to work in the filthy mines. Finally laws were enacted to give kids back their childhood, but there are always cunning companies who work hard to find ways around these laws. And, even more unfortunately, there are always parents willing to give these companies their kids in pursuit of the almighty dollar for themselves. Different times and technology, same sad story.
1
Insidious. Keep on consuming!
1
I don't like it. My feeling these kids are being exploited for the financial benefit of they're parents and the companies they endorse.
5
As others have noted, I am confused about why existing laws don’t apply to internet companies. It is the same with libel laws and social media companies. With such an unequal playing field, it is no wonder that “tech” companies are dominating the market.
Some of these quotes are very darkly comedic, and I do appreciate that.
2
This has been going on since the commercial radio programming started. It moved on to television and now the internet. Public education needs to make parents and children aware that they are being manipulated by media all the time. With consciousness comes choice.
12
Lawmakers everywhere start writing new laws to protect these children. The reality is parents will seek the riches this work provides at the cost of a child's childhood. My generation just had to deal with one embarrassing childhood photo a parent would show everyone, these kids entire life is seen by the world, forever.
17
Anything for the 15 minutes of fame. These parents should be ashamed.
68
@R.Kenney Maybe...I hear you, and agree, but I also see these parents as acting rationally in a system that rewards this kind of behavior. This is what our system is. We don't just have a market economy, we now have market values, where everything - including children and parenting - is shaped (in part) by whether or not there's any profit to be had.
My two year-old does something adorable and hilarious, and I find myself wondering if I should get her an agent. I can't just let her be a kid, I see everything though this lens of "where's the money in that?" It takes a lot of intention, support, and resistance to beat back that kind of thinking, especially when our economic culture celebrates and encourages it.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.
8
@21st Century White Guy You are correct we live in a world of vulture capitalism. Where profit is king and you must have money to buy anything.
1
Disgusting. Will American parents pull their heads out of the sands of denial and demand banning advertisements targeting children.
65
This makes me almost physically ill, especially after watching some of the videos, especially the toy opening ones. This is about parental greed.
96
I thought the Kardashians were bad. How is this much different, except for being PG-rated ? What is wrong with these parents ? I doubt they have no other means to make a living.
I really feel sorry for these kidfluencers, no matter how much money they earn or how much ‘influence’ they wield.
We really have reached that world where we’d sell anything of ourselves.
51
So a kid is financially viable then. Great.
When will the likes of Google and Amazon pay us to have a baby they can put to work?
Is your baby an Apple or an Android baby?
Ah - we're so behind - my baby just works in the coal mine with a canary.
I guess this is why we need A.I. (that doesn't seem to be effective enough to do spell checking unless you spell the word you're after with the appropriate first letter correctly) - because H.I. just isn't working for us at the moment.
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@Nick
“If it wasn’t for Everleigh and Ava, I would not have what I have today,” she said.
Translation: If I did not sell my kids I would not have what I have today.
24
Don't we have laws on the books prohibiting child labor? Then let's apply them to these children being exploited and sold online in the service of multinational corporations.
46
Child actor and child modeling laws should be expanded to include social media. How is a paid Instagram account different from a magazine advertisement? How is filming a sponsored YouTube video any different from filming a TV advertisement? We need to update our laws to reflect reality and make sure children are protected from exploitation.
89
A long, long time ago someone was asked about whether or not athletes should be paid for playing sports. His response was, "Well, if they're getting paid, then their scores should be printed in the business section of the newspaper."
Seeing this article made me think about the current argument concerning whether or not college athletes should be paid. And while I think they should - after all a lot of other people are making a lot of money off their efforts - I also find it kind of sad. Sad because as soon as they start getting paid, people will ask the same question about high-school athletes. And then middle-school athletes. Then kindergarten. And, eventually, pre-school.
The problem lies in the very corruptive power that money can bring to bear on young adults and children.
When "childhood" becomes just another monetized "commodity", what will happen to the lives and development of those children?
My guess is, in most cases, it will not end well. After all, Donald Trump was making $200,000 a year when he was five years old. And look how that turned out.
The same holds true for most child actors.
So, the kind of thing this article is about, the marketing of children, well, I think it's probably inevitable at this point. But, that doesn't make me feel any better about what I think the consequences and fallout are going to look like.
13
@Chicago Guy
"After all, Donald Trump was making $200,000 a year when he was five years old. And look how that turned out."
He's the President of the United States and still rich.
@Chicago Guy Well stated comment. Today is yesterday's nightmare. And yes, unless the world wakes up, tomorrow elementary schools will be paying children to play sports, and many other nightmares.
2
The most depressing thing I've read today. And that's saying something.
172
The parents are marketing their children. A one year old child cannot possibly agree to have an Instagram or YouTube account.
Do these adults understand that they are creating artificial worlds, as well as teaching their children that everything should be monetized?
Turn off the phones and get a life, people.
131
We neither watch nor support advertising that consumes children’s lives - which means purchasing from brands that do not exploit children who cannot consent and are not compensated for their appearance in an ad (bye, Melissa and Doug). Nor do we post photos of our children on social media - although we do use a storage site for photos that we hope proves private. But we are very weird among the families we know. I know only one other family who protects their children’s privacy by never putting them on social media. I do know a few others who do not consume exploitative media with their children. I’m not looking forward to seeing the unhappy results of this model as young stars age. You can point to stars like Ryan who made $22 million in a year, but how many more are like my young niece, who has lived her life on camera for social media and YouTube and has never been compensated in any way?
48
The way child actors have contracts and protection, so should these kids and it needs to be regulated. They are basically pseudo-celebrities anyway with the same opportunities to be exploited by their parents.
14
This is disgusting. Please just stop — do not legitimize this horrible practice. Kids need to develop in a healthy environment. Would you have wanted to grow up in a fish bowl?
154
Life would be more fun and more interesting if people actually did stuff instead of watching people on a screen do stuff.
Are people lonely, bored, isolated, that they have to watch the lives of strangers to feel like they have a life of their own? There is so much more to life than watching somebody on a screen tell you to buy something.
111
@Linda I agree. But all social media creates the void that it pretends to fill. That's part of why it's so addictive.
6
@Martin This is the best description of social media's effect that I have ever read. It should become a meme.
4
I suppose there’s no point caring about climate threats when given this kind of evidence of how our “civilization” is already doomed. Wall-E comes to mind.
69
That movie is prescient!
6
As I told my seven year old daughter when I cut off all YouTube video viewing —these families (and kids who do nothing but open toys) give an unrealistic view of how families really are, and make you feel bad about your own life. It’s not normal and it’s not healthy.
403
@T SB
You are spot on. We have 2 sons - 5 and 7 year olds and we constantly worry about all this online exposure. We don’t post their picture on FB or Videos on YouTube. We don’t have a TV connection at home. And yet at times when they finish watching their Peppa Pig on YouTube sometimes the next video that will automatically steam is an inane nonsense about some kid unwrapping their gifts. We were mortified that this could be a thing.
21
It’s like a Marshall McLuhan Matryoshka Doll.
And it would be funny, if parents weren’t born into a mindset which allows for them to even consider the commercialization of their childrens’ privacy.
57
The analogy of social media as big tobacco gets stronger everyday.
80
@BB--It doesn't smell any better, either. . .
8
So much for STEM
54
So unscrupulous, needy parents are still using their kids as props, it's just that now they're doing it via Instagram. And at some point their child will no longer be a child and realize she's been starring in the Truman Show all her life and will start looking for an exit. She and others like her will finally shut down the social media phenomenon. Something else, equally unimaginable today, will pop up to provide needy, unscrupulous parents with a way to exploit their children. So it goes.
84
Thousands, and, in some cases, millions of people are wasting their time on watching these kids' posts and videos. The brainless crowds that buy everything a cute toddler will tell them to buy, fuel the efforts of parents, so please don't complain about the parents' morals.
27
One word: unethical.
59
I don't agree with all the social media kids are exposed to at such a young age, but isn't some of this "kidfluencers" similar to kids in commercials on TV or kids in TV shows/movies? Only difference is the parents or some kids themselves are in control of the materials presented and when or how they work. I believe it should be regulated before it gets out of control!
12
Horrifying and shameful. There must be government oversight and sound regulations put in place because no consumer brand will ever self-regulate their ad policy “ethically.” I say this as someone who formerly worked in advertising.
60
The future is fun!
5
What a mad, materialistic bunch of parents! To sacrifice your child's childhood - something money can't buy - and put them in the spotlight before they can even read...I think we all 'know what this all means'. How are regular kids supposed to understand the difference between commercials and entertainment when the lines are blurred like this?
135
These people are changing the healthy brain patterns of their children. Alot of therapy in their future.
75
@EC --- another version of the opioid epidemic.
5
Look at child stars from the 80s, 90s... many were stunted at the height of their fame, some have abused drugs- the odds for success in adulthood wasn’t seem great. But, these child stars managed some semblance of privacy in the time before social media and the paparazzi. What then will become of these social media stars who have zero privacy? Where exposure is celebrity? I fear for their future.
53
Yeah, this just cemented my decision to not let kiddo on social media until she is 16.
What is most disturbing is that YouTube and FB are turning a blind eye to this exploitationj. There have always and will always be parents willing to exploit their children. We have laws to mitigate the impact. With this there is no protection from abuse. And big tech just pockets the money.
104
Why are we criticizing those who choose to engage in capitalism? Shouldn't we really be critical of those who allow it? Those who are so desperate for acceptance they allow themselves to be impacted by "influencers?"
6
@yvaker
OKAY. NO. STOP. THIS IS MESSED UP. THIS IS NOT PROGRESS, BUT EXPLOITATION.
SOME THINGS SHOULD NEVER ENTER THE MARKETPLACE.
43
Sure. Sell your kids out—literally!
Parenting, 2019.
I dunno. Not long ago, it was Honey Boo Boo being paraded by her mom before the cameras. Before that, JonBenét Ramsey.
I want to be shocked, but it's the same old thing.
I still don't like parental child exploitation.
199
I’m not a fan. So many of these kids are too young to really have a choice on what they want their presence online to be. It truly feels like the parents are prostituting their children out for their own gratification. While it might not be realistic for a child these days to have a 0 digital footprint, I'm a fan of minimizing it to give them a little more say in the matter.
161
Influencers, Kidfluencers? Sorry, I think childhood needs no branding. No different from JonBenet-type stage parents, I find this lack/type of parenting disgusting and pretentious.
246