With the growth of social media and influencers, new forms of engaging audiences have developed. Vlogging, one of those forms, is when people videotape their daily life and then post it onto websites like Youtube for audiences to consume. As the vlogging genre grew, normal families started their own sub category and began documenting their lives. They made home videos, but instead of keeping them stored on a hard drive, they broadcasted it for the internet to see. Although it seems like a harmless wholesome idea in theory, the truth that lurks behind the scenes is much darker than it appears.

Youtube Channels like “The Ace Family”, ”The Labrant Family” and “The 8 Passengers” are all popular channels with large fan bases and have all played a huge role in the toxic and problematic world of family vlogging. Essentially, what these vloggers are doing is exploiting their children from a young age, causing trauma by stripping their childhood away and pushing a camera to their face as if they are circus animals just to profit off of it.

The loophole regarding incorporating children into family vlogs is that unlike acting, there are no laws or unions. When minors sign up for acting, they are only to be on set from six to eight hours and when they get home they are allowed to live their regular lives; this isn’t the case for children of family vloggers. They are constantly the stars of the show, which means since there are no laws for family vloggers and their kids, they don’t get the luxury of going home after work; their home is still not a safe space for them. Putting children in the center of the spotlight is not only horrible for the child’s development but it is also putting them in serious danger. Family vlogging creates the perfect environment for online predators to prey on innocent children who don’t know better than to smile for the camera to make their parents happy.

When these youtubers share their life with the internet, all eyes are on them and they are then expected to give away every bit of privacy they have. This means that if they do not spill their private lives out onto their fans, they’ll get backlash and be told they are ungrateful. This can seriously take a toll on the family, especially considering that this is often their main form of income a majority of the time so they can’t afford controversy. If these families were ever to quit their careers as influencers, their social media backgrounds could be damaging to assimilating into the real world and getting regular jobs. All that being said, putting your personal life as well as your families in the public eye can create pressure to keep unrealistic expectations of the perfect family. This is often the downfall of the channels and it takes the family dynamic along with it. The truth is that none of the fame and glory is worth wrecking a family for.

“I think they all have good intentions and just aim to create content and have fun, but after a while I could see how negatively it impacts the children. Social media is so dangerous and invasive I can’t imagine why any parent would want their child to get so much attention from millions of strangers and make their children the main focus of their social media presence,“ junior Camila Ruiz said.

Although the intentions of these vloggers aren’t necessarily malicious at first, influencers need to know where to draw the line and realize that their children shouldn’t be wrapped into their social media fantasy before they can even make their own decisions.