In September, Ruby Franke, mom and owner of the Eight Passengers YouTube channel, was charged with “six counts of felony child abuse by the Washington County Attorney in Utah,” related to her YouTube channel, NBC News states. Amid the arrest of Franke, the children of other family vloggers have begun to share their stories of how family vlogging negatively impacted their childhood.
And some are trying to get new laws passed to protect children who are growing up online with little agency over what gets posted on their behalf.
Family vlogging first rose to popularity in the early 2010s with the start of the family channel, The Shaytards. Since then, hundreds of families began sharing their daily lives through YouTube and TikTok, centering the content around their children. A few of the most well-known family vlogging channels are the LaBrant Fam, Eight Passengers, and the ACE Family.
Family vlogger children come forward
The user @blackbeltbabe on TikTok posted a viral video explaining the story of Cam Barrett (@softscorpio), who is among the first generation of family vlogging kids.
@blackbeltbabe has reached over 243,000 views on her TikTok as of Wednesday. She captioned her video, “The early 2010s children from the vlogger families are grown and sharing their horror stories.” She also tagged Barrett in the caption of her video.
Barrett, 24, shared her story with ABC News in July.
@blackbeltbabe begins her video by adding an on-screen caption that reads, “You family vlogger people are going to hell, and let’s talk about why.”
While holding a piece of paper in her hands, @blackbeltbabe says the first offense that Barrett states is that her mom “broadcasted her first menstrual cycle.”
She also says that when Barrett was involved in a car accident, “instead of the mom comforting the kid … the mom put a camera in her face.”
Next, @blackbeltbabe says that Barrett stated that when she was 12 years old, a man was stalking her off her mom’s YouTube channel, messaging her on Facebook, and even followed her home at one point.
“The kid would hide in the bathroom to avoid being videotaped and photographed,” she continues, “the kid was also bullied at school because their intimate moments were posted on the mom’s YouTube.”
@blackbeltbabe says that at one point, Barrett had gotten a staph infection, and the mom exaggerated the condition so much on her YouTube channel, that Barrett’s math teacher, who was watching the family’s videos, told the kids at school to quote, “stay away from the infected girl.”
Lastly, she says Barrett states that the YouTube channel is a “digital footprint that she did not create, and is following her around for the rest of her life.”
She says this is why Barrett is “fighting and seeking law similar to the ones that govern child actors for 1, just compensation, and 2, protect them as well.”
ABC News states that “One proposed remedy is a first-of-its kind bill out of Washington state that would allow kids to request content be taken down once they reach a certain age.”
Before ending her video, @blackbeltbabe says, “Y’all need to stop pimping y’alls kids out.”
“They’re gonna grow up and go on CNN and talk sh*t about you,” she adds. “PUT THE CAMERA DOWN.”
@blackbeltbabe The early 2010’s children from the vlogger families are grown and sharing their horror stories to major news outlets. @cam ♬ original sound – Blackbeltbabe
“They need to demonetize family pages in general and never let them make a cent off these kids,” a viewer said in the comment section of @blackbeltbabe’s video.
“I’M GLAD THE BABIES ARE SPILLING THE BEANS!” another added.
Barrett gave more context to ABC News Live stating that her mom “would just post paragraphs about my day-to-day life, what I was doing,”
“She didn’t know better,” Barrett added, “You know, the internet was new to her generation.”
“Now when Barrett, who is 24, searches for her name, photos of her as a child wearing a bikini pop up on Google,” ABC states. Barrett says she is “terrified to have those weaponized against” her.
The Daily Dot reached out to request a comment from Cam Barrett and @blackbeltbabe via the TikTok comment section and direct message.
