There is no reason a family vlogging channel should exploit their daughter’s first period, their son’s first date, or share over-the-top, detailed birth videos with the world.

Not only is it cruel to these children, but it can also be damaging.

To be transparent, I was once a fan of family vlog channels, religiously watching when new videos dropped: what they named their new baby, their birth vlogs, their child’s first steps.

But as I got older, I realized how exploitative and weird these channels actually are. Why should I care when your child got braces, how much screen time they get, or what after-school activities they’re involved in? I shouldn’t, and I don’t.

I can’t physically and mentally imagine my parents posting these things about me, and frankly, I wouldn’t want them to. So, why is this so normalized in today’s society?

There needs to be a law that legally protects children from being exploited for profit by their parents and that supports their right to privacy.

8 Passengers, a family vlog channel, is an example of this exploitative and abusive behavior. Ruby Franke, the mom behind the channel, was recently charged with aggravated child abuse.

When her daughter, Shari Franke, testified during the trial, she stated to the court that she is there today as a “victim of child vlogging.”

According to Today, 11 states passed laws in 2023 to protect child influencers from exploitation. Illinois was the first state to pass a bill protecting these children financially. Minnesota followed suit, allowing children to access their compensations and have their rights to privacy protected. California also passed a law to safeguard children’s earnings.

While this is great — since many parents are stealing a lot of money from their children — it isn’t the biggest issue to me. With the shocking arrest of the 8 Passengers’ mom, it makes me question if there are more parents out there using their channels to exploit and harm their children.

There need to be state or federal laws that protect these children’s rights to privacy, like those Minnesota has. Iowa currently has no law protecting child influencers in any way from parental exploitation on social media.

These children have no say in what is posted about them, nor whether they want to be posted at all, until they turn 18. Meanwhile, their parents financially benefit from them as well as derail their privacy for views. This needs to change. Children deserve the right to consent to what’s posted about them before more of them are hurt, like the many child influencers who have come before them.