Growing up, I loved watching family vlogging. Many videos of these vloggers involved children getting spoiled with food and toys, which were the things I always craved. I enjoyed watching kids my age receive the things that I wanted, and so I grew to love these family vloggers such as 8 Passengers, EvanTube, and Disney Car Toy Reviews.
As I got older, the appeal of these videos wore off. However, the creation of family vlogging didn’t end. Instead, it seems like videos of families have been increasing, ranging from “day in the life,” “unboxing,” to “pranks.” Today some of the main entertainment videos for family vlogging are on TikTok. However, the line between entertainment and exploitation is thin and can easily be dismissed.
What is the line between entertainment and exploitation? To understand this, it’s important to understand both the audiences and the vloggers themselves. For one, when I watch videos responding to vlogs, they’re typically made by adults with concerns for the children’s safety. This is because of how easily content on the internet can be used for harmful reasons. For example, Wren (the daughter) and Jaqcuelyn (the mother) from TikTok @wren.eleanor, videos have received comments from pedophiles and Wren has fan pages that could be used for immoral reasons. For younger children on these channels and accounts, I think it’s important for the parents or guardians to be conscious of the fact that these children’s presence in the world is very new and that people watching don’t always have the purest intentions.
I think that if a family is deciding to pursue any form of family vlogging, they should start when their children are at an age where they can properly understand the dangers of being exposed on the internet and consent to being recorded. A good age for this would be high school, when children go through a path of self-discovery and learn more about their boundaries and expectations for themselves and the people around them. Also, I believe that if a family does decide to publish videos about their children, they shouldn’t release any personal information such as full name, address, school, state, etc. I believe that it’s also important to not reveal any information about their personal life like friends and relationships. Information that is safe to share are explanations of parenting techniques you use to help inform other parents of healthy ways to parent or any information that can be beneficial to parents instead of jeopardizing children.
Family vlogging has changed and adapted over the years as well as the accessibility of the internet. As adaptations continue throughout this new generation of technology, it’s important to keep the younger generations safe. Family vlogging can be entertaining if the family takes some basic precautions before uploading.
