The most horrifying element of American mom vlogger Ruby Franke's February prison sentence was the condition of her children in which she was found when she was arrested: starved, dehydrated, tied up with rope. His whole body was covered in wounds. During the trial, it was revealed that Franke forced the children to do hard labor without proper protection, resulting in severe sunburns, and that managers allowed the children to jump on cacti as punishment. It wasn't a terrible revelation. It's the fact that Franke has spent much of the past decade making YouTube videos about her punitive parenting philosophy, in which she withholds food and places her children on beanbags. They advocated punishments such as forcing children to sleep or threatening to decapitate their toys, and then filmed the children's suffering. And obedience was proof that her approach to discipline was working. Her video received backlash, but it was precisely this brutality that drew hundreds of thousands of viewers. By 2020, her subscriber count had surpassed her 2 million mark and her YouTube channel had over 1 billion views. Despite the cruelty of her actions, Franke became rich and famous for her actions.
Franke's conviction is part of a sudden and broader review of the ethics of children working in the entertainment industry, from the stars of family video blogs to the producers of children's television. In late 2022, former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy released a remarkable and disturbing memoir. I'm glad my mom diedThe article details the abuse she suffered at the hands of her obsessive stage mother, along with the inappropriate attention she received from television executives when she was still a teenager. Just a few weeks later, insider Former child actors have published an exposé alleging that Nickelodeon producer and writer Dan Schneider created a “traumatic” environment on set. (Mr. Schneider apologized for making female staffers feel uncomfortable, but denied sexualizing children on her own TV show.) HBO's new docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV We expose the toxic and abusive environment at Nickelodeon and other popular children's channels in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. The former stars allege that they were overworked, emotionally abused and even sexually assaulted by the adults they worked with and were in charge of their welfare.
Similar stories have come to light about children working in social media, an industry that has existed for less than 20 years. Children manipulated to create social media content have reached adulthood and are speaking out about their exploitation. They spoke of the humiliation and exhaustion of having intimate parts of their lives broadcast to an insatiable audience online, often at the insistence of their own parents. In March's special feature cosmopolitana now-adult child of a 2010s influencer parent described the pressure his mother put on him:[If] My smile wasn't as bright as it should have been. That usually ends up accusing me of not caring about my family. Her mother asked her, “Do you want us to starve?” Many claim they have worked full-time for their parents' social media channels for years without receiving any financial compensation.
Why is this calculation being done now? This is also because the children have become adults and are sharing the reality of their experiences in front of the camera. But it also means that there are limited (and avoidable) protections in place for child entertainers, especially on social media, at a time when scrutiny of the harms caused by social media is greater than ever. This is also due to the growing recognition that We now know that posting child content, no matter how seemingly “cute,” candid, and benign, puts you at risk from fans and predators (this (And that's before considering the harm that children may suffer from their parents.)
This brings us to serious questions. How did this happen in such an obvious light? Looking back at Ruby Franke's content, we wonder how, far from generating fans, her videos managed to escape the attention of child protection organizations. It's easy to wonder why. Although there are several laws regarding working conditions for child actors, in the United States young influencers have no rights under traditional child labor laws. These laws are desperately needed, and creating strict rules for child influencers would certainly be a start.
But even with rules and regulations and a trusted adult in the room, abuse can still be rampant.Since then Be quiet on set ' began airing, old children's TV clips featuring vulgar double entendres performed by unsuspecting young actors went viral on TikTok and Twitter.Some former screenwriters have argued that Be quiet on set Although these jokes are clearly inappropriate for a child audience, we believe they were included on purpose. They added that when they protested, they were overruled by senior writers and producers.
To protect the children featured in videos today, fundamental changes must be introduced. Despite this, those in power have either increased security measures, mere charges without accountability, or even “ethical” family video bloggers (while continuing to videotape children for financial gain). I've already seen only vague references to clever dodges such as parents selling themselves as being. There is little that can make up for the trauma and lost childhood suffered by a former child star. But we can prevent the next generation from suffering a similar fate.
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