By Laura Dinsdale
Many people all over the world watch family channels on youtube. It’s more than likely you reading this have heard or watched various of these channels, but do you know what actually happens behind the scenes of these innocent seeming channels?
I asked Benicia High student Alyssa Evans if she watches family channels, following up with the question, “Do you actually know what happens behind the scenes?” She replied to this question with the answer “I do watch family channels on youtube, but the ones I watch seem happy doing so,” but the truth is the seemingly happy channels aren’t as happy as Evans may think.
Family channels on youtube exploit children at a young age when they have no say in being included in the channel, some being put in front of the camera as soon as they’re born.
Zora Rodgers from ‘The Observer’ states concerning examples of children being exploited stating “Family vlogging is inherently unethical and morally wrong because it involves parents profiting off of creating a digital footprint that their child cannot consent to,” and goes on to say why are children being thrust in front of a camera before they can quite literally speak for themselves or even verbalize the word “no?” These statements really make you think twice about watching supporting these channels.
Family channels commonly ruin relationships between parents and their children, taking the relationship a kid needs right away from them just for a check.
Cam Berrette talks about how her relationship was ruined with her mother due to the channel she was on and from Today’s article stated, “As a former content kid myself, I know what it’s like to grow up with a digital footprint I never asked for, As my mom posted to the world my first ever menstrual cycle, as she posted to the world the intimate details about me being adopted, her platform grew — and I had no say in what was posted.”
These channels only do what they do for money, and really it comes down to being what the viewer wants. An article from the Statista states “Content for children featuring children had an average of 416,985 views per video on the other hand, general audience content that did not feature children had on average around 96,000 views per video, while the median views per video were just under 14,000.” These statistics are what channels thrive for, not caring whether or not their kids are at risk.
There’s something clear even you reading could do to prevent these child-harming channels. The solutions could be simple as not clicking on this type of content and finding an alternative channel to watch. As the channel holders they could even blur the faces of the children in order to give them some sense of privacy.
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