Nowadays, there seems to be an endless supply of bloggers: lifestyle vloggers, travel vloggers, and beauty vloggers, to name a few. People are eager to share the details of their everyday lives, and subscribers are equally eager to consume them. In the same way it’s impossible to ignore these vloggers, it also seems impossible to ignore the controversy they stir up – particularly the infamous family vloggers.
In January of this year, Shari Franke, ex-star of family vlogging account “8 passengers,” released a memoir titled The House of My Mother. This book was published following the trial of her mother, Ruby Franke, who was facing allegations of child abuse. This controversy drew attention to what many had been crying out for years – family vlogging is abuse. The children of vlogging families have their childhoods invaded by cameras and their families profit from broadcasting their private lives to the world – often without permission, because how can a toddler give informed consent?
In some of the more well-known accounts, these children are catapulted to celebrity status before their first birthday. American YouTube family “the Labrants” create social media accounts for their children from birth, and fan accounts begin cropping up just as swiftly. The unpleasant and frightening truth is that being in the limelight from such a young age exposes these children to online predators. And yet, family vloggers ignore this sinister truth in favour of cashing a grotesquely large cheque – all thanks to the labour of their children. If this doesn’t sound dystopian, then I don’t know what does.
But is it all bad? Is there a way to incorporate the fun and comforting side of family life that people turn to these vlogs for, without exploiting the children?
A personal favourite of mine is the Norwegian couple and content creators, Julie and Camilla, who run their own family social media accounts. Since having their son in 2023, they have been very private about his life, and don’t show his face online. And yet, their account still revolves around their daily lives as a family and provides the much-loved form of comforting escapism that family vlogging accounts have become known for. I’d certainly recommend checking them out!
Although some may hate to hear this about their beloved Zoella, the Deyes/Sugg family accounts are more of a grey area. Like most teens and tweens in 2016, I grew up with Zoella, and it pains me to criticise her, but much of her content features her young children. However, there has also been talk of them reducing the amount their children feature once they are school-aged, but this seems rather redundant to me. Does the issue only matter when they are old enough to notice it?
Perhaps there is a way to strike a balance between featuring children on family vlogging accounts and protecting their privacy. But to me, this seems like a risky business. Zoe Sugg, I love you, but I’m sorry; the safety of children must come before profit for parents.