The Exploitation of Privacy and Labor of Kids on Social Media
- Alyssa Walthers
- Mar 20, 2024
- 13 min read
Updated: Nov 12, 2024
Introduction
Growing up, the videos I loved watching on YouTube were vlog channel videos. My all time favorite vlogger, Haley Pham, had two channels- a main channel for more traditional YouTube videos, and a vlog channel showcasing more “behind the scenes” and “day in the life” videos. I would rarely, if ever, watch her main channel videos. I loved how the vlog channel videos felt so real. Haley would talk about her day to day issues like grocery shopping, packing for traveling, hanging out with friends,going to dance practice and competitions, and even just doing homework. I loved how these videos were so similar to my life and that I could relate to her in some of the simplest ways.
Throughout my YouTube watching phase, I watched a multitude of different vlog channels. Some that always caught my eye were the family vlogs- they gave a glimpse of what other families' dynamics were like and showed me a different style of vlogging. However, what I noticed at the ripe age of 13 years old, was that some of the information being shared about the children in those families seemed like it should not be shared on the internet. The parents would share things about their kids' academics, medical issues and doctors appointments, disciplinary actions, and other personal issues. As I grew up, my concern for these kids’ privacy grew as well. With some quick research, I learned there are virtually no laws protecting what information can or can’t be shared about kids by their parents on the internet. This blog post aims to educate people on the current laws and policies surrounding children in the media, what vlogging is, and how children's privacy and labor may be exploited within these vlogs.
Child Labor Laws and the Entertainment Industry
The first issue for kids involved in family vlogging is how their labor may be exploited due to lack of policies and regulations regarding children in entertainment and social media.
Child labor laws are produced at the federal and state levels and are broken into age categories. The purpose of these laws is to protect children from work that may be unsafe for them or detrimental to their well-being. Some laws apply only to 14 and 15 year olds, while some apply to 14-17 year olds. The federal law states that the minimum age a child can work is 14- however, the standard is different for child actors, and there is no set age that children can start working in the entertainment industry. Furthermore, age policies and fair compensation are determined per state. Right now, 17 states do not regulate child entertainment at all. With the states that do regulate child entertainment, the average state requires permits and proof of age for the child to be working. Only a handful of states have regulations in place for the amount of hours/days/years a child can work under a contract, and very few have regulations regarding child entertainers’ education and wellbeing. As for compensation, California, New York, Louisiana, and New Mexico have laws in place that require 15% of the childs’ pay be entered into a trust for the child to access later in life. Beyond that, it is up to the parents to manage their children's money and determine how much goes to savings, how much is spent on necessities and extracurriculars, etc. All of this information comes straight from the US Department of Labor’s website, which can be accessed here.
Because social media is still so relatively new, there are no regulations on the maximum hours a child should be working in social media or how a child should be compensated for the content produced. This issue brings about many questions and nuances that are becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. With family vlogging, the children aren’t under any contract, just a family agreement to participate. They’re also just typically filming videos about their everyday lives- is it really that much extra work to be in the videos? If the videos are family run, and we do set a maximum amount of hours and minimum compensation for children in these videos, how do we guarantee these laws and policies are being followed? As media develops, so will laws- so only in the coming years will we able to find solutions to these questions and the multitude of other labor issues involving children and content creation.
Child Media Privacy
The next issue for kids involved in content creation is the possibility of the exploitation of a child's information. In some vlogs, the parents will discuss a child's academics, behavior, health, and other information a child may not want shared on the internet. Because it’s their parents sharing their information, sometimes the children are not given a choice as to what is going to be shared. The child may say no to the parent, but some of the parents believe that their opinion trumps their childs, and share the information anyways. In some videos, you can even hear the kid say “don’t film this” or similar lines, and the parents respond with “but this is great content”. For these parents, sharing this sensitive information is what gets them more views, thus making the family more money. However, parents should be respecting their child's wishes, and more should be done to protect the children who can’t stick up for themselves.
Currently, there is one law in place protecting children online. COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, “gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids” according to the FTC. Essentially, this law protects companies from collecting data (such as demographics, preferences, location, etc) from children under the age of 13. This law prevents children from making or owning media accounts. It’s purpose is to prevent companies from collecting data on kids, not even protect the kids that do make it on the internet through their parents' media.
Unfortunately, there are no current laws regarding what information a parent can share about their child or lives. This allows parents to share medical, behavioral, academic, and other personal information because a child can’t really “consent” to it. Yes, the child can say they don’t want this information shared, but the parent then has to grant those wishes and respect their child. For some parents on the internet, they see this exploitation of privacy as “good content”. They can highlight this information in the thumbnail or the title, making it clickbaity to attract more viewers, therefore making more money.
The only thing in favor of helping these children is media websites’ community guidelines and recommendations. For example, Google has a forum for YouTube videos entitled “Best practices for content with children”. In summary, this forum asks parents to ensure they are respecting their child's privacy, that the child is a voluntary participant, that the parent follows all wage, labor, and education laws in their state, and that they are doing their best to protect their child from harm. However, the forum has no comment on how the rules would be enforced or if punishment would ensue for those who break the rules. It is simply a suggestion for how parents should tackle the world of content creation with their kids.
So, what is vlogging?
Vlogging combines two different forms of media- blogging and video capturing. Within vlogging, there are several different subcategories- travel, day in the life, get ready with me, educational, and family vlogs to name a few. It allows people to share elements of their lives in a more personal, intimate, and creative way. The content creator makes videos about their everyday life, from mundane things like grocery shopping, to fun aspects of life like vacations. It’s essentially a life blog in video form.
What entices viewers is the relatability. While watching, you get to learn more and more about the vloggers life- what their favorite color is or what their favorite restaurant is, to deeper things like what their family is like or certain morals/views. When you learn these things about the vloggers, you form an emotional connection to them because you feel like they’re just another person, making them relatable (Patro).
A lot of people start vlogging as a creative outlet or a way to grow a business. When a vlogger takes off and becomes popular, they’re able to start monetizing their videos. YouTube pays a small amount for numbers of views, but where real money comes in for it is sponsorships and brand deals. This is why you may see YouTubers promoting certain products or services within their videos- they’re doing advertisements for a company. This is what encourages people to keep vlogging. When they make more videos, they gather more viewers, thus having more advertising capability, and making more money all together. If you’re able to do something you love AND get paid to do it, why would you stop?
This is exactly what draws parents into family vlogging. It may start as a way to document memories or share their fun friends and family, but when they start to make money on their videos and popularity, it becomes really easy to stay and share more. They are able to use vlogging as a way for them to make ends meet or make a little extra cash, while simply videoing their everyday lives.
YouTube Family Vloggers
Two of the family vloggers I knew of and watched growing up were Bratayley and 8 Passengers. While I watched many different families, these were the two main channels in my view list. I loved them both for different reasons- Bratayley seemed more like an average family showcasing their everyday lives, while 8 Passengers was interesting to watch because of their inclusion of religion and a different family dynamic than my own in their videos. They both had entertainment and relatability factors, so I quickly became a fan of these channels.
Bratayley was a family of 5- your traditional mom and dad, a son Caleb, and two daughters Annie and Hayley. According to People magazine, the name Bratayley actually was inspired by Hayley, the youngest daughter, who the account was originally for. As a toddler, she was often referred to as a brat, as she sometimes threw fits about life not going her way. Combine ‘brat’ and ‘Hayley’, you get the channel name- Bratayley. Although it was originally just for Hayley, the channel quickly grew into a family affair. The vlogs included gymnastics competitions for Annie and Hayley, hanging out with family and friends, simple day in the life videos, and then they ended every video with a question of the day everyone answered. It was easy to watch this family, as me and many others felt like we were just watching another family like our. Unfortunately, in November of 2015, Caleb passed away suddenly due to a heart defect that he had not exhibited symptoms of before. As tragedy struck this family, they took a break from vlogging to take their time to grieve and process the loss of their family member. In my opinion, I feel like the parents did an amazing job handling the privacy needed for their family while also keeping their viewers informed and updated. They did not share more information than needed, just that they were going to take a break from YouTube and they would be back when they were ready. When they came back, they did not discuss Caleb or his death unless Annie or Hayley wanted to, and did not share information about exactly how Caleb had passed for a very long time. The parents also made it explicitly clear that if the girls did not want to be in a video or wanted certain parts taken out, that they would absolutely listen to them. In 2019, due to the girls wishes, they stopped family vlogging all together- stating that it had started to bring the family more negatives than positives. Both girls continue to post on their own YouTube channels, but in more formal video styles as opposed to vlog videos.
Something I always commended Bratayley for was how they still kept parts of their lives private. For years, they did not release their last name on the internet. This was explained as a tactic to keep the family safe while growing up. They also rarely shared things such as doctors appointments and medical information, academics, and discipline, and never showed things like the front of their house or the license plates on their cars. Because of this, the family was able to keep their personal information very private for a really long time. However, sometimes people are unkind and ignore people’s wishes for privacy, and information about them (last name, address, etc) was shared by others on the internet. This eventually led to the channel just releasing their last name on the internet, as most people knew their last name anyways.
Unfortunately, not all family vlog channels function like this. 8 Passengers was a popular family vlog channel on YouTube (the channel has been removed from the site due to recent controversies) that posted family vlogs. The videos started off normal and innocent, and were pleasant to watch. Unfortunately,over the years, some of the videos began to cross lines that clearly made the kids involved uncomfortable. The parents would film videos such as their daughters' doctor appointments, hard and typically private conversations with their kids, academic hardships, behavior issues, and discipline of all levels.
The family followed very strict Mormon beliefs and very strict parenting rules. The simpler ones were more normal- the children went to private school, were expected to dress modestly, and they were not allowed to have phones until they were older and had ‘earned’ them. However, the parents had some other strict policies that were rather controversial. In one video, Ruby, the mother of the family, mentions to her kids that when they turned 18, they were expected to move out of the house. When asked by her kids what would happen if they turn 18 before they graduate high school, she wouldn’t give an explanation. One time, when she deemed the house “too messy”, she collected all of her kids' belongings that were not put away and put them in a trash bag. At 7pm on a school night, she announced to them she would not give them back their things until they completed chores to earn it back. If they didn’t do the chores, their belongings were being thrown out at the end of the night. This included some things the kids needed such as shoes, homework, and school supplies, so the kids had no choice but to comply to get their belongings back.
Her punishments continued to worsen over the years. When the two sons were sharing a room, the older son woke the younger son in the middle of the night to prank him, telling him to get ready for a trip to Disney world. As punishment, Ruby thought it was best to banish the older son from his room, leaving him to find a new place to sleep in the house. The child ended up without a room and slept on a bean bag for 7 months.
The worst of the treatment, in my opinion, came from Ruby’s treatment of her youngest daughter. When her youngest was in preschool, Ruby claimed the child had a hard time waking up in the mornings. At one point, Ruby “had enough of it”, and chose to not wake her daughter up for preschool. She claimed that her 4 year old daughter was old enough to be responsible and wake herself up to get ready for school. When the young girl entered elementary school, she forgot her lunch at home one day. The school called Ruby to inform her of the issue, and asked if Ruby could bring up the lunch or put money in her daughter's account so she could eat. Ruby told the administrators that she would not be bringing her daughter lunch and to not give her food. The mom seemingly had every opportunity to bring the young girl lunch, but she refused so that the young girl would “learn a lesson on responsibility”.
In all of these video clips, you can tell the kids are uncomfortable and embarrassed that this is something that will be shared on the internet. They don’t want why they were getting in trouble shared publicly, nor did they want their punishments to be shared. It’s unfair to the kids because these parents had a “parents know best” mindset, and did not seem to take in their child's opinion on what should and shouldn't be shared about them on the internet.
Alyssa’s Thoughts
Not only did these kids have no control over the information being shared about them on the internet, but it’s also largely assumed that many of them never saw a dime of the money earned from the family vlogging. As mentioned earlier in the post, only a few states have laws regarding how children’s pay should be regulated, and that’s just for children in the entertainment industry.
Even if we had regulations on making sure children on social media receive compensation, there would be so many ways for the parents to get around this. One, the parents could claim that since it's a family video and there’s no official contract of compensation, the money should go back into taking care of the family, thus having the paycheck go directly back to the parents, not the kids. Secondly, there’s the issue of how much a child should be compensated for how much they are in the video. For example, say a family vlog channel puts out a video that is 20 minutes long. The youngest child, Suzie, appears in the video for only 20 seconds. Should she be compensated a base amount, or should she receive only a percentage of the earnings based on how long she was in the video? Thirdly, it’s difficult to determine the exact earnings per YouTube video. YouTubers can make money off of monetizing their videos, and can make additional earning by doing brand deals and sponsorships with other companies. While the brand deals themselves are typically a set amount, the earnings from videos are continuous and vary from video to video.
With all of these issues combined, we come to the question of how much should we guarantee the kids are compensated for their time? While this is difficult to determine, most people are in agreement- these kids deserve compensation for their time and efforts put into the videos. Next, the question of how much and what types of information should be shared about a child online? This question brings about several gray areas and boundary settings we just have not come across yet.
As we are still in the very early stages of the digital age, technology, media, and content sharing platforms are still very new and moldable, as are the laws and policies surrounding them. As the media is rapidly changing, it’s hard for laws and policies to keep up.
That being said, over the next 5-10 years I can picture a lot of cases being heard about children on social media- how and what types of information can be stored and shared, how minors can consent to their personal information being shared, how children are compensated for being present in social media spaces, and so much more.
Works Cited
Dodgson, L. (2020, June 25). These youtuber parents are speaking out after drama
channels and TikTokers accused them of being abusive to their children and had Child Protective Services visit their house. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/8-passengers-youtube-drama-what-happened-franke-family-2020-6
González, J., & Rogers, A. (2022, June 1). More than pocket money: A history of child
actor laws. Library of Congress Blogs. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2022/06/more-than-pocket-money-a-history-of-child-actor-laws/
Heyde, J. (2016, June 24). 5 things to know about the Bratayleys. People Magazine.
Patro, N. (2024, January 22). Why are daily vlogs so addictive?. Medium.
Staff in the Office of Technology. (2024, February 5). Children’s Privacy. Federal Trade
U.S. Department of Labor. (2013, January 1). Child entertainment laws as of January
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