The Exploitation of Young Children on Internet Platforms

What are the implications of using a child to create content?

I can’t help but feel uneasy as I watched the latest video. It’s another adorable one of a toddler. Her speech is garbled, as you would expect of someone her age. And that’s one of the many things that makes her charming. She’s cute as all get out.

Part of me loves indulging in the humor of her antics and innocence. It’s captivating. But another part of me feels like I’m invading her privacy.

After all, I know she didn’t consent to being captured on video for my viewing entertainment.

The latest craze of putting young children on internet platforms for public consumption and personal profit made me less and less comfortable as time went on.

Take the single mom, for example, who gains a lot of attention — and, let’s not forget, a lot of coin — for posting content about her babies and including them in her videos on the internet. The mom becomes an “influencer,” and you can watch the babies grow into toddlerhood right alongside them.

My initial thought was, “You go girl.”

If the dad is a deadbeat, not helping to raise the kids either hands-on or financially, and mom can make money to give the kids stability and secure their future, more power to her.

But the more I thought about it, the more it nagged at me. These babies, toddlers, and young children don’t have any choice in the matter. Yet they’re the ones whose privacy is at stake. They’re being placed in the limelight, whether or not they want to be there.

It’s not as though they were born into fame, like the child of a celebrity. The parent chose to become a famous “influencer” by using the child. The child doesn’t understand the risks and didn’t consent.

Not to mention, there’s no guarantee that the parents who place their little ones in the social media spotlight use the money for the benefit of their kids. There are no laws that require it or otherwise protect the child’s interests.

It reeks of exploitation. The parent is making a brand off their child and profiting from it, with no safeguards in place for the child.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he hopes national lawmakers will begin paying attention to the multibillion-dollar unregulated influencing industry, especially when children are involved. “Child labor in the online influencer industry seems fraught with problems,” he said in a statement to The Post. “Involving kids in influencing raises serious risks of exploitation — potential sacrifice of privacy, excessive hours, and lack of fair compensation. They may be providing online content without adequate, or any, protection and oversight.”

I’m not sure I would have been comfortable growing up with videos of my childhood available on the internet for a worldwide audience. Even if the videos were popular, it still might have bothered me.

Young adults who were exploited as kids are speaking out.

Gen Z are becoming adults and are starting to talk about what it was like to have their childhood broadcast on social media platforms. Cam Barrett is one of those young adults, whose story is described here.

Cam’s experience may seem extreme, and I hope that it is. But I’m pretty confident there are plenty more where she came from. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, when the cameras are off?

Gen Z young adults are the first generation to grow up with the internet. So, only time will tell what the long-term implications are as more and more kiddos share their experience.

If there are studies on the potential or actual long-term effects, they’re not widely available so that people can educate themselves on them.

But it’s unlikely enough studies have been conducted because Gen Z is only just beginning to talk about the long-term implications. And Gen Alpha kiddos are still young — at the oldest, they are only 13.

What can we do about it?

We should educate ourselves as much as possible before we hop on the latest TikTok video of another adorable toddler — or any other social media platform that includes the use of children in content creation. And we should ask ourselves whether it is worth the risk that we are enabling possible exploitation.

We should also support legislation that governs the involvement of children in social media content. Laws should be adopted to regulate, for example, the conditions under which a child can be involved and how money earned as a result of the child’s involvement can be used.

These kids deserve safeguards.