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Vlogging: A blog that features mostly videos rather than text or images.

-Vlogging serves as an outlet for many families to show off their daily lives and/or struggles of parenthood.

Exploitation: The action or fact of mistreating someone in order to benefit from their work.

-Parents exploit their children while also being in charge of providing consent.

Social Reproduction: The reproduction of social structures and systems, mainly on the basis of particular preconditions in demographics, education, and inheritance of material property or legal titles.

-Vlogging can be thought of as a social reproduction and therefore, a double-edged sword of content creation.

Gender Equity: Respecting all people without discrimination, regardless of their gender.

-Women are working unprecedented hours, and are often being told they are failing at both, so they decided to showcase these issues in the form of vlogging.

Social Media Algorithm: A complex set of rules and calculations used by social media platforms to prioritize the content that users see in their feeds

-If family vloggers choose to stop showcasing their children on their channels, they might lose viewership and priority within the algorithm.

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A Response To The Pressures of Parenting

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A Response To The Pressures of Parenting

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1. Family vlogging serves as a venting space for increased gender equity in the workplace.

2. It started as "mommy blogs," but has gradually shifted to a vlog format.

3. Family vlogs can provide personal counter-narratives to parental expectations.

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Vlogs may provide families with agency and help them make ends meet in an era of stagnating salaries and rising living costs.

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1. Family vlogging channels include footage of major milestones, morning rituals, and school preparations.

2. Thinking of vlogging as a kind of social reproduction allows the consideration of the double-edged sword that is content creation.

3. Many people may be concerned about uploading videos that depict private family life, even if it may provide families with methods of making ends meet in an era of rising living costs.

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1. Many family vlogs are carefully produced products that might reinforce beliefs about what makes a "good" mother rather than challenging racist, gendered, and classist standards of motherhood.

2. Practicing socially desirable kinds of motherhood may perpetuate racial, sexual, and class-based exclusion around who counts as a good mother and who does not.

3. By turning their parenting into a source of revenue, moms may fight against economic uncertainty.

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1. YouTube's algorithm determines whether a video becomes popular on a platform so parents are willing to go against their morals for their video to go viral.

2. Because the algorithm is always changing, creators never know if their content will remain popular, so they always have to showcase their children on their platforms to retain their popularity and prominence in the algorithm.

3. There should also be a need for more regulation and transparency of social media algorithms that govern and influence what is lucrative.

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How do family channels negatively affect their children's development?

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Do the benefits outweigh the negatives of family vlogging?

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Where does family vlogging fall when it comes to child exploitation laws?

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Family vlog channels sprang out of the larger vlogging trend, in which individuals or organizations create video blogs to record and share their lives with an online audience. Most people's only evidence of their childhood is hazy images or memories their family remembers from that period. However, in today's age children’s intimate facts of their birth are not restricted to their immediate familial group. Instead, they are made public online for thousands, if not millions, of people to witness. Vlogging grew in popularity because of sites like YouTube, which allowed users to post and distribute video material effortlessly. Family vlogging is capturing a family's daily life, activities, and experiences. Personal experiences, family trips, milestones, and other elements of family life are frequently included in the format. Viewers are encouraged to participate and engage with the family channel on a personal level. These channels, run by the parents, profit off their children's lives. The concept of vlogging started on January 2nd when Adam Kontras released a video of his vacation to Los Angeles for his friends and family. Then, family vlogging took off when Idaho father Shay Butler began uploading videos of his children in 2008. Since uploading their first video they have amassed a following of more than 4.1 million subscribers. These channels were first used by mothers to express the highs and lows of parenting, which originated from "mommy blogs". But YouTube has something that regular blogs/websites do not: an algorithm. Now, these channels can profit off their videos, which can blur their perspective of "vlogging" and "exploiting". A famous case of family vlogging gone wrong is the American content creator Ruby Franke. With over 2.5 million subscribers, she was charged with child abuse when her son escaped her home to ask the neighbors for food and water. This case raised questions about exploitation and the privacy rights of children. This trend arose as a result of a care issue. The cost of living is rising, incomes are stagnant, and government assistance is insufficient to support families. When it comes to caring for children and the family, parents, particularly females, have considerable challenges.

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1. https://thesciencesurvey.com/editorial/2023/01/18/family-vlogging-blurring-the-line-between-parent-and-employer/#:~:text=It's%20posted%2C%20and%20the%20whole,far%20from%20a%20new%20phenomenon

2. https://popoff.us/the-ethical-implications-of-family-vloggers-4c93336a05bd

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2023/09/22/family-vlogger-controversy-viewers/

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When I was exploring the complexities of my topic, I did not expect there to be barely any laws protecting children from exploitation. I also did not think of the fact that these YouTube channels may be a family's only source of income. Furthermore, I learned that the idea of family vlogging started off as an innocent, memory-preserving idea, but quickly turned into parents trying to promote their channel in order to get sponsorships and money. This says a lot about human nature and how quickly humans can turn corrupt.

I thought it was interesting that the origin of family vlogging and gender pay are related. I think it is intriguing how mothers used YouTube as an outlet for their frustrations. Something I found rewarding was the arrest of Ruby Franke. I was baffled at the fact that she got away with child abuse for so long, even receiving money/sponsorships from companies. It goes to show how not everything presented on camera is always what it seems. One challenge that I faced was my strong opinion about the topic. Going into this project, I had a narrow perspective and only thought of the negative aspects of family vlog channels. However, I did not consider that YouTube can serve as an occupation for many. I believe I have the skills to overcome this challenge because of my open-mindedness. Since I have an open mind, I was able to consider the other side of the argument, while having my original argument in mind. Something I want to learn more about is the flaws of YouTube's guidelines. Many say there were warning signs in Ruby Franke's videos concerning child abuse, yet nothing was said or done by YouTube. I would like to explore how YouTube is still so successful with its loosely regulated guidelines.

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How is family vlogging a response to gender equity?

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1. In 2020, France passed a law that child influencers can request that the platform removes content featuring them without their parent’s permission.

2. Family vlogging, whether for amusement, exploitation, or employment, serves as a reminder of the complicated linkages between care work and wage work.

3. Child influencers who appear in monetized videos are compensated financially. The law will go into effect in July 2024, and other states are expected to follow suit.

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1. Can family vlogging ever return to its original purpose? If so, how?

2. What is the impact of family vlogging on society?

3. Does family vlogging lead to long-term negative family dynamics?