Sharenting. Momager. Kidfluencing.
Over the past decade or so, these words have become part of the social media ecosphere. Looking at them, you can pretty much guess what these words mean. And they all more or less describe the families that have made careers for themselves through the exploitation of their children online.
Now, you might find that a bit harsh. After all, not everyone who shares pictures of their kids online is guilty of sharenting. Not every mom who doubles as her child’s manager is exploiting said child for financial gain. And certainly not every kidfluencer regrets the day he or she first asked their parents if they could create a YouTube channel.
But if you’ve watched or read about Netflix’s docuseries Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing or Hulu’s docuseries Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, then you’re likely aware that there is indeed a “dark side” to the industry of family vlogging.
Bad Influence
In Bad Influence, documentarians explore the YouTube journey of Piper Rockelle and her own momager, Tiffany Smith. Smith created “The Squad” for her daughter, a collection of other up-and-coming YouTube stars who helped bolster Piper’s own fame. But when the parents of other Squad members started questioning Smith’s tactics, such as the egregiously long hours the kids worked and the suspicious lack of compensation for those hours, Smith ousted them from the group using doxxing-like methods to make sure those kids would lose their YouTube fame, too.
Eventually, 11 former members of the Squad (along with their parents) sued Smith, citing the aforementioned problems, as well as sexual harassment and assault. As each child aged into his or her teen years, Smith put them in increasingly uncomfortable, sexually-charged situations both on and off camera. In a livestream, Smith provided alcohol to the underage teens and even made out with one boy on camera (prompting him to quit the Squad shortly after). Allegedly, she would ask the teens to kiss on camera and hinted that they should do more than kiss. And she also sold pictures of her teenage daughter to paying fans, many of whom she knew to be adult men.
That’s a lot to digest right there. And Devil in the Family is just as bad.
Devil in the Family
That docuseries explores the events that led to the arrest and 30-year sentencing of Ruby Franke, a momfluencer who built her own fame through family vlogging. The Mormon mom initially posted videos of her family because she believed it was an effective method of sharing her faith with the world. However, her soon-to-be ex-husband argues that Ruby craved the attention she got from social media. She presented herself as the perfect mom to the perfect family, and her followers validated that.
So, when Ruby’s six children started misbehaving on camera, refusing to cooperate for videos or even just saying that they didn’t want to pretend to be happy anymore, Ruby came unhinged. I won’t go into all the tawdry details here, but suffice it to say that she and her business partner were both arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for the abuse of Ruby’s children.
So where does that leave us?
The Truth About Influencing
According to CNBC, 57% of young people want to be influencers. (And 41% of adults would choose the career as well.) But as evidenced in these series, being an influencer can really mess you up.
To be fair, we’re sort of dealing with extremes in both Bad Influence and Devil in the Family. Not every kidfluencer becomes a victim of sexual assault or child abuse. But even taking those extreme outcomes off the table, influencers often candidly admit that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine.
Many full-time influencers on TikTok and YouTube (the two most popular video-sharing apps) say that it’s a constant grind to output videos.
In an interview with CNBC, Hannah Williams, who co-manages the TikTok account Salary Transparent Street (which has more than a million followers), said she works from 8 a.m. until midnight, with a single two-hour break, seven days a week.
Caroline Lasher, another full-time creator, told CNBC that the brand partnerships (which is how most influencers make their money) can be exhausting. “[Brands] want what they want, when they want, how they want it.” So she, too, finds the demand on her time to be nonstop.
And that’s to say nothing about social media platforms or trends suddenly changing. Leslie Mosier, who operates the popular Doug the Pug social media channels, told CNBC that keeping up with all the updates, trends and new platforms makes her feel like “we’ve literally been on our toes for nine years.”
But the key thing to remember here is that these are all comments from adults. They chose to quit their regular jobs to pursue careers as influencers. They weren’t forced into it by a momager or dad sharenting on the family vlog. They don’t have to worry about school or grades. And if they want to take a break from making videos to hang out with family or friends, they have the schedule flexibility to catch up later—or even to take a dip in their earnings that month.
With kids, though, it’s a completely different story.
The Truth About Kidfluencing
In California, child actors are protected from exploitation and abuse by the Coogan Act. It’s named after Jackie Coogan, whose parents squandered his earnings when he became a child star in the 1910s. It stipulates that employers must set aside 15% of a child’s earnings in a trust fund for when that child comes of age. Additionally, it regulates the number of hours a child can work in a given day, mandates schooling (which sometimes takes form in private tutors on set) and ensures kids get days off.
But when it came to influencing on social media, laws like the Coogan Act didn’t apply, since the kids involved weren’t technically actors. Additionally, there was no way to enforce such laws since most of the filming took place in the privacy of the children’s homes. And both Tiffany Smith and Ruby Franke took advantage.
In Bad Influence, the former kid influencers had the same complaints as adult social media stars: It was a constant grind with no time off. They said Smith would threaten to kick them out of the Squad if they didn’t stick to her schedule. And they claimed she verbally abused her own daughter if Piper wasn’t “on” for the camera. Video footage in Devil in the Family shows Franke similarly abusing her children. And she even went as far to suggest that her children must not love her if they wouldn’t “obey” and perform as commanded.
Worse still, both moms sexually exploited their children. When Franke saw that viewers were asking for more videos of her eldest son, Chad, she shamelessly started sharing more and more videos of him—including shots where he was changing clothes. Smith was even worse, forcing Piper from a young age to dress more grown up, often posting pictures of her daughter in swimwear or sultry poses and even selling extra pictures from photoshoots to adult men who followed Piper online.
Both moms withheld earnings from the kids they represented, too. Smith took her daughter out of school so they could focus on influencing. (And no, there was no tutor or homeschool plan to make sure Piper was getting an education.) And Franke, as I already said, physically abused her children, starving and chaining up her two youngest when they were just 10 and 12 years old. (She’s now serving a 30-year prison sentence for her actions.)
In 2024, laws were enacted in California to give kidfluencers more protection. For instance, the child’s parent or guardian is required to set aside a percentage of the child’s earnings in a trust account. And child influencers also gain agency over their online content once they reach adulthood, allowing them to take control of their accounts and to delete content should they wish to do so.
But because many kid influencers film content at home with their families, it’s really difficult to regulate work or school hours. Those things are left to the discretion of the parents filming them. It’s also up to the parents to sell “bonus” content on sites such as BrandNation (think OnlyFans, but without the porn stars).
Parents of Kidfluencers
Parents reading this are probably thinking one of two things. If your children are influencers themselves, you might think, “This is a very extreme example of what can go wrong with influencing, and I will protect my child from experiencing any of this.” The opposite response is perhaps more likely for most parents: “Influencing is awful. Kidfluencing is worse. And my child will never, ever participate in it.”
All I would say is this: Perhaps there’s a balance.
If your kid really wants to become an influencer, it’s important that he or she knows about these harsh realities beforehand. For starters, they’re going to need the right sort of personality. And I don’t just mean that they need to act a certain way onscreen. To be successful, you have to be willing to work a lot and work hard. You aren’t going to get days off. You’ll work long hours every day of the week. One wrong comment can get you “canceled.” And even if you aren’t posting provocative content, you’ll still likely face predatory behavior (which, while more prominent, isn’t limited to teen girls).
Parents should educate themselves on the laws of their state regarding social media. If your child experiences harassment or abuse online, what are your legal options? If your child is targeted by a predator, how do you report that? Are there stipulations regarding the management of their social media accounts? Is there a Coogan-like law in your state? If your child is earning significant income as an influencer, are you setting aside some of those earnings for him or her?
Additionally, I think parents should know about the social media platforms themselves. If you’re going to be the parent manager of your child’s account, that will certainly add a level of protection. But if he or she is a teenager, your involvement might not be required for some platforms. So make sure that you and your child know how to block predators and report inappropriate online engagement. Learn how to delete comments and filter out crude responses. And be sure to check any videos before they’re posted, so that your child doesn’t post something that might embarrass him or her when they grow up or otherwise hurt someone else.
Finally, help your kids help themselves. What I mean is that they need to learn a good work/life balance. If they want to spend their Saturdays filming and editing videos, make sure they spend some time playing with friends or hanging out with family without the cameras on. Check that they’ve actually completed their homework assignments before they dive into an editing session.
And most importantly, if your child tells you that he or she doesn’t want to be an influencer anymore—even if it’s been financially beneficial—listen to them.
