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CINCINNATI - Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced today that his office and law enforcement agencies are seeing an increase in cases involving impostors posing as others, especially as children or teens on social media and online gaming platforms, persuading victims to provide sexual or intimate personal information, and using that information to threaten or intimidate their victims.

Parker urged parents and caregivers to take steps to help young people identify the impostors and avoid becoming victims.

"Social media has opened up a whole new realm of child exploitation opportunities," Parker said. "An online predator can easily amass victims across the United States by pretending to be someone they aren't. Offenders will tell fictitious stories and create personas to manipulate and coerce victims."

Parker offered the following guidance to parents and child caregivers:

Know what devices your child is using and their passcodes to access the devices;

Become familiar with the online games and the social media your child uses, and the privacy settings in the games and apps;

Set limits on the time your child spends online;

Talk with your child about the dangers of sharing personal information or images online and how those images can damage their mental health and reputation; and

Watch for sudden changes in a child's behavior such as isolation, missing school, losing interest in friends, becoming obsessive about their phone, and being angry or upset after they've been online.

Parker also emphasized that parents need to maintain open lines of communication with their children letting their child know that the parent will be monitoring the child's online activity to protect their child. "Assure your child that they can come to you and talk judgment-free about their online activity, who they've met, and what they discuss," Parker said.

Parker cited recent cases of a 28-year-old high school coach accused of impersonating a 15-year-old girl and persuading his victims to send sexually explicit photos which he distributed over the internet, and a convicted sexual offender who allegedly worked with his girlfriend claiming that the only way he could get life-saving surgery for his mother was to sell sexually explicit images and videos of minor victims. Defendants in all criminal cases should be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

Parker said these two cases, like many child exploitation cases, started with caregivers or other adults notifying local law enforcement of their concerns. He urges any parents who suspect their children could be victims of online exploitation to contact their local law enforcement agency. Many local agencies participate in Internet Crimes Against Children task forces that unite federal, state, and local law enforcement resources to investigate and prosecute cases of child exploitation.

To report online child sexual exploitation, use the electronic Cyber Tip Line or call 1-800-843-5678. The Cyber Tip Line is operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
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U.S. Attorney warns about rise in online impersonators exploiting children

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How the Internet is Drowning in Child Sex Abuse Content — ACCO

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Children love social media — and so do sexual predators. Social media enables the two to interact, with awful consequences for millions of
children who end up physically exploited and featured in Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

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Addressing Child Exploitation on Federated Social Media

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The report finds that child safety challenges pose an issue across decentralized social media networks and require a collective response. Current tools for addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse online-such as PhotoDNA and mechanisms for detecting abusive accounts or recidivism-were developed for centrally managed services and must be adapted for the unique architecture of the Fediverse and similar decentralized social media projects.

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Here is a link with multiple statistics and info graphics that show the rising numbers of child exploitation on various social media platforms.

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In the first three-quarters of 2021, Facebook flagged a staggering 55.6 million pieces of content under "child nudity and sexual exploitation"-20 million more than 2020's overall total of 35.6 million. According to the social network's latest transparency reports, 50 percent of this content (28 million pieces) was flagged in Q2 of 2021 and 41 percent (22.7 million) in Q3 of 2021.

As our previous findings reported, Facebook isn't alone; Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and Snapchat combined remove millions of posts and images that fall foul of community guidelines regarding child abuse.

When talking about child pornography, the discussion often pertains to those shady corners of the internet: Omegle, the dark web, Usenet, end-to-end encrypted chat apps, etc. But the problem isn't limited to private groups or anonymous platforms. Thousands of images and posts containing child abuse, exploitation, and nudity are removed by the biggest names in social media every day.

In this update, we not only wanted to look at how 2021 compared to previous years for these types of reports, but we also wanted to find out what happens to all of these pieces of flagged content. What are big tech companies proactively doing to combat the problem? How many of these cases are referred to law enforcement? And how successful are individual countries in investigating these cases?

Tech giant content removals for child exploitation

As we've already seen, in just nine months of 2021, Facebook had already exceeded 2020's content removals for child exploitation by a whopping 20 million. Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat also exceeded their 2020 figures, with YouTube looking set to do the same, too (all of these platforms have released some 2021 reports, the remainder have not).

In the first three-quarters of 2021, Instagram saw 4,797,100 content removals for child nudity and sexual exploitation. This is 1.5 million more than the entire year of 2020. Instagram, like Facebook, also saw a sharp rise in Q2 of 2021 with 1.86 million of the year's content removals coming from April to June. However, this continued into Q3 with a further 2.1 million removals. Tiktok also saw a significant increase in Q2 with 33.7 million reports compared to 22.8 million in Q1. This total for the first half of 2021 (56.5 million) already outpaces the total figure for 2020 (55.4 million).

In contrast, YouTube saw more content removals in Q1 of 2021 than Q2 and Q3 (5.1 million compared to around 1.9 million in each of Q2 and Q3), but it could still overtake 2020's total of 11.6 million.

By June 2021, Snapchat had already removed 119,134 accounts for child sexual exploitation and abuse, 20,000 more than 2020's total of 98,166.

What does this mean?

While we don't have the full year's data for 2021 yet, the fact that many of the platforms have displayed significant increases in content removals regarding child exploitation (up to Q2 or Q3 of 2021) means 2021 looks set to be an astronomical year for this type of content. While some of this could be due to increased vigilance and better detection of such material, it also highlights the large scale of child exploitation on social media.

Previously, Reddit saw the number of content removals relating to child sexual exploitation increase from 2018 to 2020. And Discord, which we've just started tracking in this update, had seen double 2020's number of account removals for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in the first half of 2021 (rising from 23,000 to nearly 52,000). Discord only defined CSAM as a category mid-2020.

What happens to the content that's removed and the people who've posted it?

US companies are required by law to report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the NCMEC or risk a fine of up to $300,000. However, how thorough the company is at referring cases to the NCMEC depends on its systems and protocols for detecting such material.

For example, a recent report found that Facebook has a new rule in which 'images of girls with bare breasts will not be reported to NCMEC. Nor will images of young children in sexually suggestive clothing.' Interviewees were also quoted as describing a new "bumping up" policy-something none of them agreed with. The policy comes into play when a content moderator cannot determine whether or not the subject in a flagged CSAM photo is in fact a minor (category B) or an adult (category C). When this occurs, the moderators have been told to assume that the subject is an adult. This, therefore, means fewer images will be reported to the NCMEC.

The report also critiques Facebook's use of the Tanner scale. It was developed in the mid-1900s when researchers (led by James Tanner) studied a large number of children through adolescence, photographing them at their various stages of puberty to create five definitive stages. Facebook's content moderators then use this chart to categorize the subjects according to which stage of puberty they are at. However, as Krishna points out, 'CSAM has to do with a child's age, not pubertal stage. Two children of the same age but in different stages of puberty should not be treated unequally in the CSAM context, but relying on the Tanner scale means that more physically developed children are less likely to be identified as victims of sexual abuse... Even worse, the scale likely has a racial and gender bias. Because the subjects of the study were mostly white children, the Tanner scale does not account for differences in bodily development across race-nor does it attempt to.'

This suggests that the vast number of content flagged by Facebook may only scratch the surface of the problem. But how many of these pieces of content are being referred to NCMEC and what happens after?

In 2019, Facebook (and Instagram) had 39.4 million pieces of content flagged as child exploitation. It referred 15.9 million (less than half) to the NCMEC. In 2020, 20.3 million pieces of content were referred to the NCMEC by Facebook-52 percent of its overall total of 38.9 million.

Where are all the other reports going?

Facebook suggests all of the child exploitation posts it flags are referred to the NCMEC. Therefore, the number that goes unreported to the NCMEC could be duplicated pieces of content/accounts. Facebook did release some statistics in 2021 which suggested 90 percent of the content it reported to NCMEC was "the same as or visually similar to previously reported content."

Facebook's lower NCMEC reporting rate compared to its content removal rate isn't as significant as some of the other top-reporting ESPs, however.

In 2020, YouTube saw 11.6 million pieces of content flagged as CSAM. Google submitted a total of 188,955 reports to the NCMEC (solely from YouTube) in the same reporting period. That's 1.6 percent of the flagged content that's been referred.

Likewise, TikTok flagged 55.4 million pieces of CSAM content in 2020. It referred 22,692 to NCMEC-0.04 percent of its flagged content.

Even though ESPs are mandated to report CSAM to the NCMEC, this does beg the question as to how they are determining what content they should and should not refer to the organization. Equally, as ESPs don't have to notify or send data to prosecutors or police in the country the material/offender originates from, this places an enormous amount of pressure on non-profit organization, NCMEC-which, by the way, had just 41 analysts in 2020.

Which countries are hotspots for child exploitation material?

Once the NCMEC receives the reports from ESPs, it uses the geolocation of the reports (which are provided by the ESPs) to refer them to the relevant law enforcement agency in that country. NCMEC's referral to law enforcement is described as "voluntary," too. This means that once NCMEC refers the case to the agency, it is up to them to investigate. There is no specific requirement. Plus, even though NCMEC may be aware of if and when the law enforcement agency looks into the data sent, they don't know any more than that.

The top ten countries for referred reports from NCMEC are:

1. India - 2,725,518 reports

2. The Philippines - 1,339,597 reports

3. Pakistan - 1,288,513 reports

4. Algeria - 1,102,939 reports

5. Indonesia - 986,648 reports

6. Iraq - 916,966 reports

7. Vietnam - 843,963 reports

8. Bangladesh - 817,687 reports

9. Mexico - 793,721 reports

10. Colombia - 763,997 reports

At least three of these countries (Iraq, Vietnam, and Bangladesh) have inadequate legislation and/or procedures to combat online child pornography. For example, in Bangladesh, the Digital Security Act is described as failing to contain any provisions on the online abuse of children. And when cybercrimes of this nature are investigated, those involved suggest law enforcement agencies lack the infrastructure and competence to adequately investigate them.

Furthermore, in the countries where investigations are initiated and recorded by police authorities, the figures are a fraction of the ones referred from NCMEC. This is even before we've considered that the police won't be dealing solely with cases from the NCMEC but cases from within the country and/or referred from other organizations.

How much content is successfully dealt with by local law enforcement agencies?

Due to a lack of information surrounding the number of investigations looked into from cases that are referred from NCMEC, this makes it difficult to determine exactly how many of the cases are successfully investigated and lead to convictions. However, our researchers looked through the top 45 countries (by number of referred cases in 2020) to see how many cases of online child exploitation were investigated by relevant authorities in each country.

While we can't accurately suggest X percent of cases from the NCMEC were investigated, the figures give us some insight into how many cases were investigated per 100,000 cases referred from NCMEC.

The below table describes the figures we were able to find. In some cases, only figures for 2019 were available (the Philippines and Thailand). In these cases, the figures have been compared in the same year.

Country

# of Reports from NCMEC (2019)

# of Reports from NCMEC (2020)

% Increase in Reports from NCMEC

# of Reports Investigated by Law Enforcement

# of Reports from NCMEC to Investigated Cases per 100,000

What the above highlights is the dramatically low number of online child abuse cases that are investigated per year, particularly in Asian countries. Across all of the countries, a total of 2,380 cases of online child exploitation per 100,000 reports submitted by the NCMEC were investigated.

In the US, the IC3 investigated 3,202 online crimes against children in 2020. The various Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces (ICACs) also launched 109,000 investigations during the same period. When compared to the number of cases referred to US law enforcement from the NCMEC (nearly 495,000), this seems like a pretty significant chunk. And with the majority of cases opened by individual ICAC departments across the US coming from NCMEC, the US appears to have the best rate of investigations to reports received in all of the countries we can find data for.

Are ESPs "passing the buck" when it comes to online child exploitation?

What the above demonstrates is that a significant number of reports from the NCMEC appear to be disappearing into an unregulated, unlegislated, and uninvestigated black hole in many areas. While the likes of the US may be actively looking into the majority of cases, in some of the worst-hit countries for this content, the systems are unable to cope with the sheer volume of reports they receive.

ESPs may do their bit by referring cases to the NCMEC and the NCMEC may also play their role in referring these cases to the relevant law enforcement agency. But after that, many of these cases are simply slipping through the net with no authority having any responsibility to ensure these reports are adequately investigated. Plus, as we saw with Facebook's content moderation policy, there are serious question marks over how well this material is spotted and reported in the first place.

And from what the figures that are available for 2021 so far tell us-the problem is growing at an exponential rate. If the NCMEC sees the same increase it did from 2019 to 2020, it could be facing as many as 28.7 million reports in 2021. But the fact Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok had already far exceeded 2020's entire totals in just six or nine months of 2021 could mean 2021's figures are almost double 2020's. This would mean a total of around 44 million pieces of content reported by ESPs alone.

However, with Facebook's rollout of end-to-end encryption on its apps, could the figures fall? Many experts, including the director of the National Crime Agency in the UK, Rob Jones, are concerned that the encryption will enable child exploitation (in particular) to go undetected and untraced. Jones suggests that the encryption will prevent officers from accessing "incisive intelligence." Therefore, it will be interesting to see what figures Facebook's next quarterly report discloses. At first glance, a fall in figures may seem like a step in the right direction but may simply indicate that millions of reports of child exploitation on these platforms go unnoticed.

Whatever the figures may be for 2021, one thing's for sure-many of the specialist organizations and law enforcement agencies around the world are simply overwhelmed by the number of online child exploitation reports they're receiving. And that does leave us with one significant question-shouldn't those who are at the root of the problem (the ESPs) be doing more to cut off this content at the source?

Methodology and limitations

We used content removal figures from each of the following social networks' latest available transparency reports:

Facebook - from Q3 2018 to Q3 2021

Instagram - from Q2 2019 to Q3 2021

Youtube - from Q3 2018 to Q3 2021

Twitter - from July 2018 to Dec 2020

TikTok - from July 2019 to Q2 2021

Reddit - from Q1 2018 to Dec 2020

Snapchat - from July 2019 to June 2021

Discord - from July 2020 to June 2021

Some reports do not cover an entire year, as reporting might have started or ended mid-year. The overall figures for the year are only based on the time frame that child abuse was recognized as a category so as to provide a fair percentage.

Facebook recently changed its reports having previously included "fake accounts" in content removal figures. Now, these aren't included, which is why total content figures have reduced from our previous reports (but this is across all years so still offers a fair comparison).

Snapchat only covers accounts removed, not individual pieces of content removed, in its report.

Twitter and Discord cover both banned accounts and specific content removals.

Some social networks, including Tumblr and Pinterest, did not have sufficient data for us to analyze.

Transparency reports really only became a trend among social media companies in 2018, so we don't have a ton of historical data to go by. Furthermore, changes in content moderation policies might skew the numbers.

What tech companies are doing about it

Content removals are typically the result of either an automated filter or users of a service flagging content they think is inappropriate. In some cases, human moderators might be used to judge whether something should be removed, but it would be all but impossible for moderators to examine every single thing posted on a social network.

Child pornography is illegal in the United States (and pretty much all of the world) and is not protected under the First Amendment. However, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, social media companies are protected from liability when their users post something illegal. So they can't be sued when their users post child abuse content.

Still, social media companies certainly don't want to be associated with child abuse, so they do what they can to remove such content as quickly as possible. So far, their tactics are largely reactive, not proactive. Pre-screening content would likely be too burdensome and come with serious privacy concerns.

Recently, Apple has started hashing image files on users' iCloud storage to see if they match those in a law enforcement database of child abuse images. This allows Apple to scan users' storage for child porn without actually viewing any of the users' files. Some privacy advocates still take issue with the tactic, and it's not perfect, but it might be a compromise that other tech companies decide to adopt.

Data researcher: Rebecca Moody

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The rising tide of child abuse content on social media - Comparitech

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In the first three-quarters of 2021, Facebook flagged a staggering 55.6 million pieces of content under "child nudity and sexual exploitation"-20 million more than 2020's overall total of 35.6 million. According to the social network's latest transparency reports, 50 percent of this content (28 million pieces) was flagged in Q2 of 2021 and 41 percent [...]

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When children are hired as actors, there are laws and safeguards to monitor the education, hours and conditions of that child's workday, however most of these are ignored and the children fall short of meeting their needs for safety and health.

Fortunately, The Coogan Law requires child actors to have Coogan accounts where employers can deposit 15% of a minor's earnings, according to the Screen Actors Guild.

However, when children are online entertainers, their parents are their only supervisor, and those safety measures do not exist

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LaBrant Fam: Family vlogging channel has faced controversy

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Cole and Savannah LaBrant are YouTube's favorite Christian vloggers. But their rise to social media stardom hasn't been without its bumps.

The LaBrant Family is a wholesome YouTube channel featuring Cole, Savannah and their three kids Everleigh, Posie and Zealand. The family has 13.1 million YouTube subscribers. Despite the couple's efforts to keep things family-oriented, some of their antics have landed them in hot water.
Who is Cole LaBrant?
Cole was born on Aug. 21, 1996, in Troy, Ala. He grew up in a Christian household and his faith remains central to his lifestyle. Cole's rise to fame began in 2013 when he started the Vine channel Dem White Boyz with his two friends Baylor Barnes and John Stephen Grice. It mostly focused on prank, stunt and comedy content.

When Barnes and Grice became disillusioned with social media, Cole took over the trio's channels and rebranded them under his name. After hackers deleted a ton of Cole's Vine content, he shifted to Christian content.

In 2016, Cole and his mother came in second place on The Amazing Race. Following the show, he pursued more on-camera work appearing in Sanders Short, Sadie and Emmie and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

In 2017, Cole married influencer Savannah Rose Soutas. The couple launched their YouTube channel as "Cole&Sav" before changing it to The LaBrant Family after having their first child together.

Cole has 4.9 million Instagram followers and 20.7 million TikTok followers.
Who is Savannah LaBrant?
Savannah was born on Mar. 2, 1993, in Orange County, Calif. Her parents divorced when she was a kid. In 2012, during college, at 19 years old she gave birth to her daughter Everleigh. She broke up with Everly's father, Tommy Smith, due to infidelity.

Savannah developed her following on Musical.ly by posting videos of Everleigh. Before vlogging she was a professional photographer. She has 6.7 million Instagram followers and is one of the 50 most-followed accounts on TikTok with 28.8 million followers.
How did Cole and Savannah LaBrant meet?
The couple met on Musical.ly after Cole messaged her for a shoutout. The two didn't really talk much online. Months later, when Cole was visiting California he spotted Savannah at the mall. The two exchanged numbers and quickly developed a bond. Eventually, Cole moved in with Savannah and treated Everleigh as his own daughter. Soon after, they began vlogging together and the rest is history.
Who is Everleigh LaBrant?
Everleigh LaBrant was born on Dec. 14, 2012 and is currently 8 years old. Everleigh is a model and fashionista. She has 4.9 million followers on Instagram, 3.1 million YouTube subscribers and 1.1 million followers on a joint Instagram account with her best friend Ava Foley, ForEverAndForAva. She is Savannah's daughter from a previous relationship.
How many kids do Savannah and Cole have?
The LaBrants have three children Everleigh, Posie Rayne born Dec. 28, 2018 and Zealand born July 29, 2020.
How much money do they make from YouTube?
The LaBrant Family channel is believed to generate about $15,000 per day or $5.5 million per year based on their videos averaging three million views per day. Cole and Labrant have an estimated net worth of $15 million.
LaBrant Family controversies
Some of the LaBrant's content has not landed well with fans. In one prank, they told Everleigh they were giving away the family dog Carl. People thought the stunt was traumatizing for the little girl. Others felt the couple was exploiting their children for fame.

In 2018, the couple came under fire for allegedly faking an evacuation during the California wildfires. A video titled "A giant fire makes us evacuate our house" sparked the backlash. The LaBrant's neighbors and fire officials claimed the family's home was never in danger and that the video was intentionally misleading. The LaBrants changed the name of the vlog to "We left our house because of fires in California."

Cole received negative attention again in 2020 when he posted a video showing Everleigh stepping on the back of his adopted cousin Peanut.

On Aug. 28, the LaBrant Family posted a video called "She got diagnosed with cancer (documentary)." In the vlog, the couple wondered if their daughter Posie had cancer because she had pain in her legs. Cole and Savannah revealed Posie does not have cancer but that they wanted to highlight children who do. However, fans thought the video was in poor taste because it used childhood cancer as "clickbait."

"Dude Cole LaBrant is a disgusting human being. Profiting off of clickbait having to do with cancer, then proceeding to visit children in the chemo ward of hospitals during a pandemic all so he can get more clout. DISGUSTING," user @ momofit212 said in a tweet.
In The Know is now available on Apple News - follow us here! If you enjoyed this story, read more about critiques of the "midsize" fashion movement. More from In The Know: Woman 'in complete shock' after waking up with foreign accent The 'best iron I've ever owned': Amazon shoppers love this 2-in-1 hair straightener and curler These inexpensive, silky-soft pillowcases on Amazon are good for your hair and skin The 3 most affordable meal delivery kits for cooking at home

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LaBrant Fam: Family vlogging channel has faced controversy

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Cole and Savannah LaBrant are YouTube's favorite Christian vloggers. But their rise to social media stardom hasn't been without its bumps. The LaBrant Family is a wholesome YouTube channel featuring Cole, Savannah and their three kids Everleigh, Posie and Zealand. The family has 13.1 million YouTube subscribers.

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Why Are Some Viewers Accusing the Mom From 8 Passengers of Abuse?

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By Shannon Raphael

Jun. 3 2020, Updated 12:14 p.m. ET

With nearly 2.5 million subscribers, the 8 Passengers YouTube page is a go-to spot for many to watch content that is intended to be family friendly. The channel is run by matriarch Ruby Franke, and it centers around her life as a wife to Kevin Franke, and how she's raising six kids - Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, Shari, and Eve.

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Ruby generally posts a minimum of six new vlogs each week, meaning that she's sharing a lot about her personal life and her children. While oversharing is an understood prerequisite of being a successful vlogger, many of Ruby's viewers have grown concerned over the things she chooses to divulge about her kids.

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What is the 8 Passengers abuse controversy? Several videos from the family channel have alerted viewers. From making her son sleep on a beanbag chair for seven months, to seemingly ignoring her kids' desire to keep things off-camera, Ruby Franke has gotten into a bit of hot water with some online.

What is the 8 Passengers abuse controversy?

Though 8 Passengers is a family account, Ruby appears to run the account, and most of the videos do not feature Kevin Franke.

The main video that caught viewers' attention was removed from the 8 Passengers' channel once it started getting a lot of negative attention in the comments section but was re-uploaded by a separate user and can be seen here. The comments section on the 8 Passengers' videos has also been disabled.

In the now-deleted video, Ruby explains that her eldest son, Chad (age 15), had not been sleeping in his bedroom for seven months after he played a prank on his younger brother Russell (age 8).

"In our house, when we take something away, it's because they have shown that they are not responsible enough to manage it," Ruby explains. "So we don't just turn around and give it back as soon as they start acting good. It has to be consistent over a minimum of six months. And that's showing it consistently in every aspect of their life."

When Chad said that was a new rule, Ruby asked whether or not he had ever gotten a privilege back before six months had passed. He said no.

"My bedroom was taken away for seven months, and you gave it back like a couple of weeks ago," Chad said.

"I've been sleeping on a bean bag chair since October," Chad says in the video, which was originally posted in May of 2020.

He explained that he had told Russell that the family was going to Disneyland, which they weren't, and that he also pointed a BB gun at his younger brother's face.

"Chad showed that he was not able to manage himself sharing a bedroom with Russell," Ruby notes. When the Franke family moved, Russell was given the bigger bedroom, while Chad was not given access to having a bedroom.

Other punishments mentioned in the video were that Ruby had locked up all of the kids' electronics and the TV remotes in their home for an entire summer. Chad also hadn't had access to a cell phone in more than a year, and Ruby said that she was not planning on giving it back to him. Her daughter, Abby, also has had her phone taken away for more than six months, and Ruby explained that she would likely never get it back.

Chad, Eve, and Shari also admitted that they didn't have any friends.

Viewers were alarmed that Chad Franke was sent to a camp for troubled teens.

In August of 2019, Kevin and Ruby filmed a sit-down video to explain why Chad had been absent from their summer vlogs. They said that, because of his behavioral issues, had been put in the Anasazi Foundation Wilderness Therapy Program for 10 weeks. Per its website, the program aims to "provide intervention services for troubled teens."

"It's an accumulation of things over years... and it's reached a point where Chad needs to develop some very basic maturity skills that he's going to need as an adult," Kevin explained.

This particular video, in addition to the comments made about taking away privileges for several months at a time, got many viewers concerned about the 8 Passengers family.

A Change.org petition was created on May 31 with the intention of getting Child Protective Services (CPS) to do an investigation on the family.

Neither Ruby nor Kevin has commented on the controversy. Both have limited or turned off the comments section on their respective Instagram pages as well.

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Why Are Some Viewers Accusing the Mom From 8 Passengers of Abuse?

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By Shannon Raphael Jun. 3 2020, Updated 12:14 p.m. ET With nearly 2.5 million subscribers, the 8 Passengers YouTube page is a go-to spot for many to watch content that is intended to be family friendly.

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Although this is a joke, the problem with Disney stars being victim to exploitation and it having long term negative effects on their lives is such a problem that it has even become a part of meme culture.

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The "Toddler's and Tiara" meme star Kailia Posey committed suicide after being in the spotlight of media since she was just 5 years old.

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The Ace Family is a "family friendly" channel that started and centers their "brand" around their children (written in the title). They have posted multiple videos of placing their children in non child-friendly situations for increased views on their Youtube channel.

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More videos of The Ace Family oversharing their children in crying fits for views on their Youtube channel which can lead to trauma in their children.

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Britney Spears has been exploited her entire life from the moment her parents placed her in the spotlight.  “Somebody’s done a good job at exploiting my life,” Also lead to major drug use as a coping mechanism.

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The former actress has previously spoken about how she had no interest in acting from the start — her mom pushed her into the field when she was 6 years old. She wrote this memoir in dedication to her mother's passing who was very abusive towards her and exploited her while she was a child actor.

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Most Youtube channels are only taking down these accounts until after they are made aware of the reality, yet providing no resources to prevent these occurrences.

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The adopted mother of the account was charged with two counts of molestation of her children, seven counts of child abuse, five counts of child neglect and five counts of unlawful imprisonment all while maintaining a "picture perfect" family and not allowing for the BTS to be visible.

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Removing child exploitation from media by placing laws that limit their exposure would keep children in safe environments that will allow for them to grow in an ideal setting without the excessive influence of media on them.

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Many people may be unfamiliar with what exploitation is, so they need to be educated on the meaning of exploitation and to be able to identify it and call it out.

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Childhood actor, “Daniel Radcliffe said that young fame brought…pressures including the expectations to live up to…images he “had in his head about what it means to be a famous actor”...He used alcohol as a coping mechanism and this led his drinking to spiral out of control” (Bumfuzzle). Radcliffe being placed in the spotlight at such a young age and being expected to deal with the pressures of such a draining career at such a young age does damage on children’s minds and bodies.

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Social media has problems within itself regarding health concerns for people but now it has even started to become a problem for children’s health and safety. Parents have found that it is easy to video and upload small clips of their children and it can generate potentially millions of dollars in revenue. This is where the line into exploitation can be crossed.

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How does social media impact my child's mental health? 

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How does social media impact my child's mental health

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Are Parents Exploiting Their Kids on Social Media?