Let Kids be Kids: The Need to Stop Family Vlogging Channels

As the need for video content continues to rise and YouTube curates endless genres and videos to watch, there’s one type of content the platform should’ve thrown out long ago — family vlogging channels. 

This YouTube genre was initially created to capture the ups-and-downs of family life along with the triumphs and tribulations of these families’ children. While on the surface it may seem wholesome and innocent, in reality this content is a toxic environment causing more harm than good, especially for the children involved.

This video genre’s existence and popularity on the internet overtly exploits children for money and fame, regardless of the mental health damage this lack of privacy or agency could incur.

Take for example The Prince Family, a channel with almost 12 million subscribers dedicated to creating challenge videos, vlogs and the most harmful of all — educational skits. These skits are meant to show parents how to act around their children, as well as what a healthy family dynamic should look like. 

In one of their most controversial skits, the parents pretend to fight and eventually reach a point of wanting to break up. As the couple fights, their young kids are forced to sit and watch, treated as no more than actors, despite the confusion and sadness on their faces. 

While this may seem to be just a skit, it’s important to realize they’re still putting their children through a harmful situation. Even if it’s just a simulation, it doesn’t stop the children from seeing their parents fighting and potentially feeling complicated, distressing emotions. Not to mention, their kids’ acting for this video will ultimately put money directly into the parent’s pockets.

Another channel known to exploit their children for views is The Labrant Fam. In a video titled “She Got Diagnosed With Cancer,” the father, Cole Labrant, talks about his child Posie’s many health scares and how he thought she had cancer. She doesn’t have cancer, but the horrific implications of the video’s clickbait title shows he ultimately used her health for views and money.

This lack of privacy and exploitation of a child who can barely even talk reveals the problems with this type of content. Using your child’s health for monetary gain exposes this lack of care for the child’s privacy and wellbeing, as now the world knows every detail about them. 

One final infamous example of how badly this type of content can hurt a child’s mental health was DaddyOFive, a channel where the parents constantly played upsetting pranks on their children. 

In one video, they call one of their children “super annoying,” and tell him they’re putting him up for adoption. The child initially calls their bluff, but they continue with the prank and the 9-year-old begins to get upset, screaming, crying and hyperventilating.

When they finally tell him it’s a joke, they laugh maniacally and act as if nothing happened, while the kid must continue to live with this disturbing memory and emotional distress. The parents were put in jail for child neglect and the children were re-homed in 2019, according to The Guardian. 

While this channel has been taken down, the harmful memories of these pranks will stay with the kids forever. While some channels aren’t as extreme as others, they all depend on manipulating their children’s emotions.

Making money off your kid’s life is a cruel act and shouldn’t be allowed on any internet platform. These children don’t choose to have their lives broadcasted to the world and many aren’t getting any compensation for their work. Fame and money have infiltrated these vlogging parents’ minds, blinding them to the pain they’ve caused.

The children subjected to these kinds of videos will never be the same after going through such emotional and traumatic experiences. These parents refuse to understand money and popularity are temporary, but the harmful vlogging environment they put their child through will stay with them forever. Stopping family vlogging content is the only way to finally let these kids be kids and enjoy a normal and innocent life.