Inside the world of 'kidfluencers' where children make thousands from social media — at a cost
Inside the world of 'kidfluencers' where children make thousands from social media — at a cost
Children are gathering large followings and earning thousands of dollars through social media influencing — but some warn it comes with a dark side.
Honestly that shit should be banned. It's the same fucking story over and over again - exploitative parents and a trail of slavering pedos
How dare you call her exploitative! She explained social media and modeling in detail to her 4 year old who can barely speak and he clearly understood everything and consented! And if the kids change their mind later and decide the parents massively invaded their privacy, it's no big deal - everyone knows it's extremely easy to delete things from the internet forever! It's not like the exact same parents were also complaining about multiple people downloading photos of their children and then re-uploading them on websites and accounts outside of the parent's control...
I like how one of the mums pulls out this argument:
When we ask Kym whether she thinks she contributed to sexualising Bobbi, she says no.
"Do you watch the Olympics? They do gymnastics, they do swimming. Bobbi, a lot of the time, is more covered than that," she says.
"It's like telling a woman, 'You shouldn't go out in public dressed like that because you could get raped.'
Only difference is the olympians made an informed decision as adults to go to the olympics (I do agree that there are some sleezebags who try to make women's sport uniforms and rules overly sexualised), while you daughter had her account created at 7 and it was probably not explained what the consequences could be.
The whole world is a fucking shit show
She points to the head start Jerome is being given, saying that 90 per cent of the $20,000 a year he makes is being put into an account for him when he's an adult.
90%? Yeah I'm sure he agreed to this, but that's 18k a year (assuming it continues at this rate with no interest, etc. by the time he's 18 it'll be whatever is in there now + 252k) and I mean it is a pretty good head start. But still like what future implications is this going to have for him?
- Will he get bullied in high school?
- Miss out on jobs over baby photos?
- Be discouraged from studying by having so much money?
- AI generated CSAM?
Call me out of touch but all of those things are possible. Plus what is his work arrangement? What are his rights? I thought you had to be 14 or something to be able to work. The fact that his mum justifies it with money is absurd, and I'm sure she's enjoying that extra 2k a year.
Crazy idea: Children aren't property
While those are all valid concerns, the focus on direct harms sort of overlooks all the other ways in which social media can corrupt a child. What kind of adult do these children who grow up online, obsessed with the validation and attention of strangers, turn into? There has been a pretty alarming increase in the rates of anxiety and depression among teenagers around the world and it corresponds closely with the rise of smartphones and social media platforms like Instagram. It's really concerning to me that so many parents are not questioning this level of integration within their child's life of products and systems we know can be harmful to fully grown adults and that are intentionally designed to be addictive. The kids in this investigation were extreme examples, but "normal" children are also being exposed to this environment from an early age, with minimal supervision, during a period when we know their brains are rapidly developing and highly malleable. That should concern us more than it seems to.
Fully agree, I think the reason why parents aren't questioning it is because they are addicted to it as well, but fail to recognise the mental health problems because they are a bit older and probably more resilient. They don't understand that the way a child's mind works is very different to that of an adult and wayyy more vulnerable. Deleting my Instagram account was one of the best things I have ever done for my mental health. All commercial social media is shit, but also so is Lemmy when used not through the web UI (i.e. an app that will let you scroll forever on 'all').
This is like that magpie story, the kids and animal can't consent.
I watched this on ABC and it just felt grotesque from start to finish.
I especially enjoyed the Ava(?) kid who's mum is going on about how it's totally cool, her kid loves it, it doesn't affect her negatively... but also she cant go out in public by herself as they're worried one of her "fans" might do something to her.
Well, ok then.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Before social media, those seeking the limelight might have got an agent and pursued acting or modelling, but now influencing is a way to cut out the middleman and reach audiences directly.
"It's almost like a contagion effect," says Lyn Swanson Kennedy, who has been looking at kidfluencers in her role with Collective Shout, a group against the objectification of women and children.
AFP Commander Helen Schneider from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation says the risks increase once children start having public profiles and have people following them that they don't know.
Meta estimates about 100,000 children using Facebook and Instagram receive online sexual harassment each day, including "pictures of adult genitalia", according to a US court case.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says there is a perverse incentive for social media companies, including Instagram, to keep catering to these male audiences.
While Nina knows she can't stop people stealing Jerome's images, she is careful not to post topless photos of him to prevent them being misused.
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Narcissistic parents corrupting children.
One of my friends (not a close friend) is a moderately successful ‘mumfluencer’ and the whole thing is just gross. I cringe every time I see one of her videos pop up in my feed.