Family vlogs that feature children irk me. I find them highly immoral and exploitative. It is borderline child abuse. I really sympathise with these poor tots who have to contend with having a camera constantly shoved at their faces just so mommy and/or daddy can get views and clout. I think family vlogging makes for shitty parents who put views and likes above the safety, privacy and well-being of their children.
It is ridiculous that these YouTube parents think it is okay to document every fine detail of their children’s lives and post it on the internet for thousands of strangers to see and comment on. If your little ones are the main focus of your family vlog, you are abusing those children.
Period. For most of these children, this exploitation begins from the moment they come out of the womb. Their births are meticulously recorded and shared online. What is supposed to be a very personal and intimate event is essentially turned into a scheme to bring in more viewers, hence more revenue. These shenanigans don’t end there. The child’s every move henceforth will be filmed and posted online. From tantrums to potty accidents, strangers the world over get a front row seat to these poor child’s unfortunate upbringing.
Nothing is off-limits to these parents. Nothing is too embarrassing to post online. On the contrary, the more outrageous the content, the better. For many of these vlogger parents, filming often times takes precedence over parenting. Is your child throwing a tantrum? What a perfect moment to pick up the camera and film! Your audience will love it!
Forget about comforting the child. One should never miss the opportunity to film! I watched a few family vlogs over the past one week and I am now convinced that these mommy and daddy vloggers never do anything just for the sake of spending quality time and bonding with their young ones and significant others.
Any outing or event is planned solely for the purpose of filming it for their social media followers. I really don’t think most of them would do any of the ‘fun’ things that they do if they were told that they couldn’t document it for social media.
 I also take issue with how some of these social media vloggers use cruel antics and stupid pranks to try and get a reaction of their children just so they can post it on their YouTube channels.  How money hungry and fame hungry does one need to be to jeopardize their child’s psychological well-being for views? It is amazing the things parents would put their children through anything just to get a little attention online.
That’s not even the worst part. Any parent with at least two brain cells to rub together would know that the internet is a vicious place. Online anonymity brings out the worst in people. When those nasty comments start rolling in, not even your cute little two-year-old will be spared.
I read the comments on one video and there were a lot of snide comments about the child in the video.  They were throwing around words like ‘ugly’ and ‘retarded’ about the three-year-old girl. She may not be old enough to understand these vile remarks yet but as they say, the internet never forgets.
Who knows what impact these comments will have on her life when she comes across them later on in life? I am not a parent but I know for a fact that I would never subject my child to something like this.
No amount of fame or money is worth it. Parents who continually subject their children to this online vitriol only care about the revenues the videos will bring in, not the well-being of their children.
 I am all for parents vlogging about their parenting experiences and sharing their day to day life with interested viewers but for Pete’s sake, leave your children out of it.
You can vlog about parenting without putting your children at the center of your vlog. After all, isn’t your content aimed towards other parents?  You do not need to embarrass your kids or damage them psychologically to make good family vlog content.  You should care more about the well-being of your kids, not the attention of some strangers online.

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