We've all seen the influencer families dominating social media. They are the parents making bank on platforms like YouTube or TikTok by sharing their everyday lives and, more specifically, the lives o their kids. There's a huge appetite for this kind of content and it seems like more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon to cash in on the trend.
But recently we've started to see a more sinister side to the wholesome front some of these influencer families are portraying to the world. Earlier in the year, Ruby Franke, a mummy blogger with millions of view, was sentenced to prison for abusing her six children. Back in 2021, YouTuber Jordan Cheyenne received a heavy amount of criticism after she accidentally uploaded raw footage of her coaching son to cry for a video announcing their family dog had died.
And now a new Reddit post, entitled 'My mom is an influencer and I hate her for it', is causing people to question what the long-term impacts might be upon the children whose lives are shared online without their consent.
Watch: Influencer Natalia Taylor fakes a Bali holiday in IKEA. Post continues below.
An anonymous poster took to Reddit to open up about how unhappy she is with her influencer mother, whose quest for views and notoriety is having a negative effect on her life.
In a lengthy post, the 16-year-old said she understood the "irony of me posting this on Reddit" but ultimately needed to get it off her chest.
Among the gripes she had with her influencer parent sharing every aspect of her life was an instance when she declined a 16th birthday party but her mother went ahead with one regardless.
"There were 150 guests and between my dad, my brother and myself we only covered 30 of them," they wrote. "I don't even know how much of that party she wasn't on her screen for, since she was constantly filming and uploading it, along with a lot of her friends."
The poster also opened up about how unenjoyable family vacations had become citing times when her mother wouldn't let them sleep or eat until she had finished recording those 'genuine' moments for content.
"Another time we went on vacation and every second it was filmed," they wrote.
"When we got to a hotel, we weren't allowed in until she recorded the room even if we just drove for eight hours and wanted to sleep. She'd take her time in areas she could photograph even if it was a rock (actual thing), but when me, my dad and brother tried to enjoy a non-aesthetic place, I felt rushed like she wanted to just go. If we got food, she didn't let us eat or move the food until photos and videos were taken, even having us pose with the food or announce what it is. That one annoyed me.
"One time we travelled by car and it was over 10 hours since we ate. When we got a chance to eat dinner, she took my food before I got a chance and was recording it saying things like 'oooh how delicious,' and I was so tired and hungry I just gave up and started tearing up."
Further along in the post, the Reddit user began to express how her mother's endeavours as an influencer were adversely affecting their relationship.
"I've started to envy her followers," she wrote.
"She gives them so much more attention than me. She goes off on my dad about how much closer I am with him than her, but I ask to watch a movie with her and she declines. Her reasoning is always that she has a livestream later she's hosting, or a video to film, or her followers are live. She's turned me down so many times I stopped even trying to hang out with her, since if I do get her around, she's on her phone."
She ended the post speaking about her mental health, and how she feels for any other children who may be experiencing a similar situation.
"I feel like I'm going crazy, when she posts about me I feel exposed like I have no control," she wrote. "My dad keeps saying she views the world through [a] lens and I have no clue if this is how parents are nowadays but it's terrible, I'm so sorry if anyone else has to grow up like this."
It's pretty heartbreaking, especially when you consider it comes from a 16-year-old who feels like they don't have anywhere to turn for advice but an online community — not unlike those at the root of her relationship issues with her mother.
So, just how damaging is the impact of being a part of an 'influencer family' on children?
According to clinical psychologist Dr Kim Stirling, "There have been a lot of discussions in recent years about the importance of considering privacy, consent and online safety when posting images and information about our children online.
"It is also important to be mindful of the impact on children from a psychological perspective. A focus within the family on creating 'content' to share with people online may increase a young person's awareness of themselves as a social object and lead to a preoccupation with how they are perceived by others. This can trigger or exacerbate social phobia and perfectionistic tendencies which can have a detrimental impact on our sense of self and lead to secondary mental health challenges.
"Monetising our online presence may add an increased pressure to 'perform' and is likely to exacerbate all of these challenges."
Dr Stirling also told Mamamia that if parents do decide to share their children online, it's essential they're aware of how that content may be perceived by the kids themselves.
"It is particularly important to be mindful of content that is shaming in nature, even when framed as a joke, as this may have a detrimental impact on the child's sense of self," she said. "It is important to remember that developmentally, children are not able to easily discern between sarcasm or 'jokes', and are likely to internalise this as criticism."
While there have been policy and reform development in recent years, the internet is still, at large, very unpoliced and unregulated, meaning it is very hard to holistically protect our children from bullying and image syndication. Dr Stirling urges parents to be mindful of how this could adversely impact children.
"Increasing our child's online presence will increase the opportunities for negative comments from strangers which is challenging to navigate for any person, especially when we are young and still developing our sense of self," she said.
"The impact of online bullying is well documented and has very clear detrimental effects on anxiety, mood disorders and body image."
As the 'influencer family' trend is relatively new (in the grand scheme of things), it's likely we won't see any major clinical research for a few years. However, if this Reddit post is anything to go by I think we can, at least anecdotally, glean that the impact of being the child of an influencer is something we should be very wary of.
Feature Image: Canva.
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