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Kids

A 4th state just passed laws protecting 'child influencers' from their own parents

A former 'Youtube star' had brutal words for these parents in her testimony.

Canva Photos

New laws aim to protect teen and child influencers' money. It's a start.

In recent years, some big questions have popped up about the kids you see on social media. When an influencer posts a photo with their children or an adorable candid family video, it might not ring many alarm bells. But what if their kids are constantly an integral part of their every day content? What if those influencers rely on the cuteness of their kids, or the hilarious things they say, to drive engagement of their content? Content they earn money for?

In the worst cases, teens and even toddlers are not just a prop in their parents' videos, but they are positioned as the "stars" of their own social media accounts. Child influencers. I remember once seeing a shocking post about a 3-year-old girl who was "excited" to tour the country and meet all of her fans. My own daughter is that age and only cares about cartoons and mac and cheese, so it's ridiculously easy to see the parents pulling the strings behind the scenes. But social media is big business, and big money.

Finally, something is being done to protect these kids. Utah just became the 4th state to pass simple legislation designed to ensure children are at least being fairly compensated for their work online.


influencers, social media, screentime, youtube, tiktok, instagram, children, families, parentsUtah is letting kids delete content they appeared in when they turn 18. Photo by Ethan De Long on Unsplash

The new law dictates that any family earning more than $150,000 per year from online content that includes their children set up a trust fund for them, and offers guidance via a formula to calculate how much the kids are owed for their appearances. It may not end up being much, but at least the kids will be compensated somewhat for their own likeness.

Most fascinatingly, the Utah law also gives kids the right to have any content they appeared in deleted when they turn 18. That is a major win, and it gives kids some agency back when they become adults capable of making their own informed decisions.

Other states with similar protections include California, Illinois, and Minnesota — with legislation currently being drafted and debated in many more places. The monetary protections are a good start, but more will definitely need to be done to reign in parents putting kids on the Internet without their permission. The exposure, fame, and messages can do a lifetime of harm to young people.

The passing of the law hinged on testimony by former child YouTube "star" Shari Franke, who was forced to appear on her family's channel 8 Passengers as a kid. Her mother was later arrested for child abuse.

“I want to be clear: there’s never, ever a good reason for posting your children online for money or fame," Franke said to lawmakers. "There’s no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger. ... The only people harmed by child influencer laws are the parents exploiting their children.”

She called being a child influencer "24/7 labor" and has urged for stronger protections that go beyond just setting aside money earned.

"How do we determine how much a child should get paid for appearing in family content?" she said. "What price is worth giving up your childhood?

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The line between using your kids as props to monetize and genuinely sharing moments from your family's life is thin and grey. This area of social media is uncharted territory, and we don't even know the full impact of how growing up in the online spotlight (and not by their own free will) will affect kids. There will always be loopholes in legislation meant to protect kids. Hollywood has been trying to get it right for nearly 100 years, starting with the first law that gave child actors some control of ownership over their own wages.

It's great that Utah is taking a first step, and hopefully many more parts of the country follow suit soon.

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Motherhood

Mom admits parenting can be 'deeply unsatisfying,’ and other moms are happy someone finally said it

“I'm saying this out loud because I don't think we talked about it enough."

via Celeste Yvonne (used with permission)

Celeste Yvonne admits that motherhood can be "deeply unsatisfying."

Parenting is often sold to child-free people as the most satisfying experience one could have in life. It’s supposed to provide them with a greater sense of meaning because after becoming a parent, every day is filled with little miracles.

Many parenting influencers, with their picture-perfect lives, obedient children and immaculate houses, will have you believe the same thing.

However, reality is a lot different. The problem is that it’s taboo for parents to admit that raising children can be boring, repetitive, stressful, agonizing, and unfulfilling. So many parents who feel this way think that they’re the problem and in the minority, when many of them feel exactly the same way.

These parents are applauding Celeste Yvonne’s recent TikTok video, in which she admits that parenting can be “deeply unsatisfying.” Yvonne is an award-winning writer, sobriety coach and bestselling author of “It’s Not About the Wine: The Loaded Truth Behind Mommy Wine Culture.”

@theultimatemomchallenge

Don’t mistake my words for being ungrateful. There is a huge difference between gratitude and satisfaction. #motherhood #momlife

“Okay, here's my hot take, so don't come at me. But for the most part, motherhood is deeply unsatisfying. And we don't talk about it enough,” she opens the video. “I love being a mom and I love my kids dearly, but 90% of my role as mother is not satisfying.”

Yvonne admits that being a mother is often thankless and repetitive.

“It is the nitty gritty. It is getting kids to clean up after messes. It is reminding kids to wash their hands. It is convincing kids to eat the meals I make. I mean, it is a lot of work. So much work. And in and of itself, that part is not satisfying,” she said in a video with over 200,000 views.

“I do not go to bed most nights feeling satisfied in my role as mother. If anything, I go to be with intrusive thoughts, worrying about their future, feeling like I didn’t do a good enough job,” she continues.

She finishes her video by asking more moms to follow her lead by discussing the sensitive topic.

“I'm saying this out loud because I don't think we talked about it enough,” she explained. “For a long time, I felt like I was doing it wrong because I saw other people, other moms on social media, beaming and glowing about the milestones, talking about how satisfying this role is, and wondering if I was doing it wrong. The truth is we just don't talk about the unsatisfying parts. And I think we should.”

The video made many moms feel seen. “I wish more women (mothers) were honest about this like you are,” one commenter wrote. “Moms need to talk about this more—I love my kids more than anything—but I do not enjoy being a mom,” another added.

@theultimatemomchallenge

Replying to @nokechic07 to be clear, this is not a Ballerina Farm problem. This is a me problem. But it’s also an us problem. And until we have better support systems in place for mothers in the US and everywhere else that needs it, I’m going to keep talking about it. #ballerinafarm #momlife #fedup #fairplay

Upworthy asked Yvonne why she thinks her video resonates with so many parents. “Motherhood is a complicated, nuanced topic, but for the most part, we only hear and see the highlight reel,” she told Upworthy. “The majority of my days in motherhood do not look or feel anything like what I see on social media, and by openly admitting to that, I hope I help other mothers feel seen and validated.”

The writer has no problem sharing her thoughts on such a touchy subject because there are people who need to hear them. “I used to be afraid of sharing the full truth on social media because people can be so mean, but I feel confident in my role as mother and trolls or angry comments don't affect me like they used to. I keep sharing because of the moms who reach out and say I help them feel less alone,” she told Upworthy.

In the end, it’s all about being there for others. “In recovery, we talk a lot about the importance of sharing our stories so others feel seen, and if I can be that beacon for anyone struggling with motherhood, addiction, or mental health matters, I will try!” Yvonne said.

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Pop Culture

Does everyone think your hobby should be a side hustle? Here's why they're probably wrong.

Can’t we just enjoy the things we love instead of turning them into a business?

Scott Beale / Laughing Squid and Flickr

A tour of Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods.

When someone possesses a unique talent, people react in two ways: They either encourage them to turn it into a career, while others caution that commercializing their hobby might strip away the joy they find in it.

Understandably, someone with a knack for arts and crafts would probably want to make money selling their wares. Because, as the saying goes, when you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Plus, setting up an Etsy shop and social media accounts and starting a small business is easy.

Further, in a world dominated by hustle culture, it’s almost expected that someone will try to monetize their hobby instead of doing it for the pure joy of doing it.

However, when your hobby becomes your job —whether that’s weaving blankets, making pizza, or creating a podcast—you now become pressured to do what you used to enjoy in your leisure time. That blanket becomes a product. Your pizza becomes foodstuff and your podcasts are now content.

Now, instead of baking that white pie because you like the taste, you add sausage and Canadian bacon to satisfy the market. The blankets you once made with high-end yarn are now being woven with the cheaper stuff to increase your margin.

Instead of taking a week off of your podcast because you don’t have an intriguing guest or topic, you’re forcing yourself to produce 45 minutes of content you would never listen to.

The topic has been a hot-button issue on Reddit, and many warn against turning one’s passion into a product. “I turned my hobby into a side hustle for a while. I realized it wasn’t worth it when my husband reminded me that the whole reason I started the hobby was to relieve stress from my job, but somehow, my stress relief had morphed into a second job. Haven’t done an art market since then,” SquishySquishy333 wrote.

“Turning a hobby into a business is a great way to turn something you love to do into something you hate,” Slumminwhitey added.

It’s easy to see why people would love a hobby to be their job because it seems a lot more fulfilling than working one that you’re not passionate about. But Robin Moriarty, a global business executive and former Forbes contributor, asks why people feel they need to be fulfilled by their career. Why not work for money and find fulfillment when you’re off the clock?

“In the U.S., our culture is very focused on achieving and accomplishing. Our identities are often wrapped up in our job, our title, our salary, and our promotions. Just go to any cocktail party and the first question is, ‘What do you do?’ which implies that what you do is an indicator of who you are,” Moriarty writes in Forbes. Work can be something you do to pay your bills so that you can go get your fulfillment elsewhere — from family, from spirituality, from friends, from volunteering, from hobbies, from taking classes, from sports. Where you choose to seek fulfillment is your choice.”

Ultimately, people should be able to follow their passions and use their talents as they see fit. But they should be aware that if they turn their hobby into a job, it’s going to be a lot less fun than doing it for pleasure. Plus, in a world where everything seems to be motivated by economic forces, doing something for the pure joy of it seems like a revolutionary act.

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Pop Culture

MrBeast shares the one problem with influencers that's 'painful to see'

Not everyone can be MrBeast.

via Steven Khan/WikimediaCommons and Ivan Samkov/Pexels

An influencer and MrBeast.

After YouTube phenomenon MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, 25, graduated high school in 2016, his mother made a deal with him. He could live in her house and go to college, or if he didn’t want to pursue higher education, he would have to move out and live on his own. So, he decided to go to college, although his heart wasn't in it.

The content creator, philanthropist, and founder of Feastables chocolate snack brand had just started making videos on YouTube as a teenager and had yet to hit the big time. So, he went to school while continuing his passion for creating YouTube videos.

However, college was not for MrBeast and he quickly dropped out. “I got to college and I couldn’t stand it, man. I used to sit in front of other classrooms and think, yo, I don’t know what the fu*k is going on,” he said, according to Essentially Sports. Instead, he put all his efforts into pursuing his dream of being a YouTube star. By the following year, he had earned over 1 million subscribers on the platform and was well on the way to being a success.

Last year, MrBeast reportedly made $82 million from his hundreds of millions of subscribers.

In an interesting twist to his story, MrBeast recently warned aspiring influencers and content creators to be careful about following his footsteps and giving up everything to pursue their dreams.

"It’s painful to see people quit their job/drop out of school to make content full time before they’re ready," Donaldson wrote on X on March14. "For every person like me that makes it, thousands don’t. Keep that in mind and be smart plz."

MrBeast’s tweet contradicts the inspiring advice successful people often give about following their dreams. Especially for someone so young who gave up a college education to pursue his. MrBeast is not advocating for people to follow the words of the great T.S. Eliot, who once said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” Or Nelson Mandela, who famously said, "There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

But MrBeast definitely knows the business he’s in, and it’s a lot different than it was when he first started out in 2016. The number of YouTubers has expanded exponentially over the past 8 years, and there are only so many eyeballs and sponsorships to go around.

Further, influencers now have to compete with artificial intelligence and TikTok is in danger of being shut down by the government.

"The chances of you quitting your job without a safety net and becoming a successful content creator are slim to none and anyone who does that is the exception, not the rule," Katya Varbanova, a brand marketing strategist and the CEO of Viral Marketing Stars, told Business Insider. She also added that a big part of MrBeast’s success was "being in the right place at the right time."

MrBeast made it big by working tirelessly to figure out the type of videos the YouTube algorithm and viewers wanted produced. Then, he scaled up his budgets and production quality to become a leader in the content creator industry. But one of the keys to his success was that he got in the game at the right time.

For those who may be discouraged by MrBeast’s thoughts on becoming an influencer in 2024, it doesn’t mean to stop following your dreams. It means to be like MrBeast and find the next big thing before everyone else, work hard to perfect it and shoot for the stars.

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