Mommy Vlogging is Child Abuse and You Won’t Convince Me Otherwise

For many of us parents, our opinions about sharing our children online have evolved over the years. Back in the day, we saw apps like Facebook and Instagram as little more than a way to keep in touch with long-distance relatives and high school friends. One of the benefits of these multimedia apps was that they allowed us to share photos and videos of our children to loved ones who didn’t get to see them every day.

As social media has expanded to become a multi-billion dollar industry with creators of all types and backgrounds seeking to take a piece of that pie, the way we use social media has changed. Some parents, who once used their social media pages to share sweet updates about their children, have now become “mommy vloggers” who exploit their kids’ countenance to secure brand deals, free merchandise, and even free vacations. For these parents, it is no longer as simple as sharing their children’s lives with the people who love them. It is now about dragging their children onto the dance floor to capitalize on the long-known reality that social media content depicting children gets up to 30% more engagement (and revenue) than content depicting adults.

I could write hundreds of articles about the ethical implications of this behavior, as well as the long-term effect on the mental and emotional…