I recently encountered a Tiktok video from the user “10kidin10years,” a family’s social media account dedicated to posting about life with 10 children. Though the video showing the children’s responses to the prompt “What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” was wholesome, the comments were abysmal. Online users made fun of every child, commenting “quantity over quality” and “10 fails in 10 years” along with a myriad of reaction images laughing at them. It was maddening that these parents put their children in such a compromising position in the first place. Countless children have lost their privacy, dignity, and childhood to their parents’ selfish needs for fame. Social media, at least this side of it, perpetuates exploitative child stardom that has existed for decades, and there is no reason for it to carry on in the contemporary era of the internet. With content creation turning into a mode of income for many people, the government needs to take a stricter approach to child labor laws. 

Other than makeup tutorials and vlogs, family videos are the most popular type of content on the internet. On the surface, these videos seem innocent and funny, focusing on raking in engagement from “wacky” situations and capturing candid moments. But looking at the content through a critical lens, you will realize nothing about this is ethical.

I see any content posted on social media platforms as products and therefore extensions of the entertainment industry. Sure, 15 years ago I might have agreed with the statement that not everything posted on the internet has malicious intentions. The iconic “Charlie bit my finger” video was certainly not scripted or profit driven. But well into 2026, it’s safe to say the internet has graduated from simply documenting candid moments and sharing videos for friends and family. Unless you have a private profile, everything you post has the potential to gain traction from a worldwide audience — in other words, potential for a worldwide market. This makes it difficult to understand why people are drawn to producing family content in the first place.

Viewing the internet through this lens has radically shifted my perspective of the content on my feed, especially content starring children. When I come across a video of a child’s silly antics or a showcase of their talents, all I can picture is parents shining a camera in their face. There’s nothing natural or good spirited about this type of content. If anything, it feels like the parent is in the director’s chair and their child is the lead subject. In many ways, they’re actors in their own homes. The whole premise of using a child as a vessel for fame and fortune feels like a contemporary retelling of any child actor’s horror story.

Since the beginning of film in the 1920s, people have debated the ethicality of child acting. Between the inhumane punishments toward children on film sets to parents pocketing the money their children rightfully earned, it’s hard to see how society can continue to justify child acting as a humane career. Take Jennette McCurdy, former child actress known for her role on “iCarly,” who chronicled the lifelong impacts being in the industry had on her in her book “I’m Glad My Mom Died.” McCurdy’s entire childhood was traded for a role on TV, and her mother’s emotional abuse persisted well into her adult life. 

One might cite the numerous protective laws for child actors to excuse the negative impacts of  children working in the entertainment industry. But even though these protections limit work for children to six hours a day, they still undermine decades worth of evidence that being in the industry is at its very core a form of exploitative labor. It’s all too common for parents to reap the benefits of their child’s hard work without investing it into their children’s futures. California passed the Coogan Act, a law requiring employers to set 15% of a child actor’s earnings in a trust, in 1939 because parents were pocketing the wages of their children in the first place. 

Now, with the growing importance of social media in the entertainment industry, this decades old debate remains at the forefront of legal discussion. In a new digital age where people consider “content creation” an untapped realm of labor, the role of children as entertainers needs to be scrutinized more. 

In the extreme case of the Franke family  a Utah mother saw social media as a way to gain influence in her community as well as provide a steady income. When one of her kids escaped her home after she held him hostage, the long-term abuse of her children spiraled into a nationwide case. This type of incident is not foreign to other family vloggers either. Back in 2017, a popular family prank channel, DaddyoFive, lost custody of two of their children after authorities found most of their content to be evidence of child abuse. They framed the content as harmless pranks to get a laugh from the audience, but every video showcased the children sobbing and trying to get away from the camera. Even in circumstances that are made to seem innocent, people still use children for entertainment before they can even properly consent. 

We’ve seen what happens when child actors aren’t protected, and online content starring children functions the same way. Quality of life should trump a need for entertainment in every context.