Everything Is Content - Everything In Conversation: The Tragedy of Child Influencers

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Hello EIContent-obsessives, this week's deep-dive is on child influencers.Jessalyn Grace, now 18, used to post YouTube videos to her 1.5m online audience as a child. But the former influencer has recently shared the dark reality behind that smiley online veneer. Behind the scenes she was an over-worked, anxious child and the breadwinner of her family. In this new video, she's also accused her mother of financial, verbal and physical abuse and shared why she left her family home.Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the Spotify comments and in our DMs – did you agree/disagree with our takes?Love O,R,B xxxx-------my experience as a "child youtuber"Stacey Dooley: The Family That Live Online Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth. I'm Ruchera. And I'm Anoni. And this is Everything in Conversation. This is the bonus content icing on your Friday main episode cake. We'd love for you to take part in these conversations and we love when you agree and disagree with us. And you can give us those by following us on Instagram at Everything is ContentPod. That's where we decide on topics and open the floor for all of your opinions.

This week, we're diving into a viral story from a former child influencer. So, trigger warning, the story that we're going to talk about contains details of abuse and exploitation. Jesslyn Grace is an 18-year-old former child YouTuber. Right now, she's at university in the US and supporting herself, despite being the family's sole provider for years. On the 3rd of March, she uploaded a YouTube video titled My Experience as a Child YouTuber, and the video has gone viral. It has 1.8 million views. Jesslyn says she essentially wasn't planning on sharing this story which she's already done,

but she was forced into it after her mum hacked her new YouTube account and wiped all of her videos. We later learned that this is actually the second time her mom has done this, essentially annihilating her sources of income in retaliation for her daughter speaking out. Also, once you delete videos, there is no way of regaining them. So it is a massive deal that her mom has done that. To give you a quick synopsis of the story that she goes into in this video, In 2016, Jesslyn's mum set her up a YouTube account, which her daughter posted on regularly, and within two years, Jesslyn had an amazing 1.5 million subscribers.

During this time, she alleges that her mum subjected her to verbal and physical abuse in every time she made a video. Her mum would punish her, and the only way for her to get out of this punishment was for her daughter to create content. Her mum also set a precedent of always deserving thanks and gratitude during this time, so anything less than that from Jesslyn would result in her being grounded or verbally harassed. She said her mum controlled everything she did and said on camera and in this video she details an example of being called a quote fucking bitch at age 11 after messing up lines on camera. And as is often the case with these stories, Jesslyn was controlled financially too.

She was way too young to realise her mum wasn't saving her earnings and she didn't notice all of the designer clothes accumulating in her mum's wardrobe until much later. She in this video shares screenshots of her mum's socials and I've not seen anything like it really. It is an exhibition of Chanel content, Louis Vuitton, items. It is just picture after picture of designer stuff. And Jesselin says when applying for colleges when she was older, her mum said she didn't know any good qualities Jesselin had and that she had no chance of getting into any good schools, which is ironic because she ended up getting into UC Berkeley,

which is obviously an amazing school. The thing that pushed her to leave this situation was this incident where Jesselins' sister accidentally broke her mum's curling wand and the mum not realizing this had Jesslyn spend the whole day looking for it. Her sister eventually fessed up to it, but Jesselan was the one who got her mum's wrath. And she stood up for herself, but this was the wrong thing in her mom's eyes. Her mum grabbed her, shoved her, screamed at her and then grabbed a wooden mallet allegedly and began swinging it at her daughter.

And after this incident, her mum took away her laptop and phone. And once Jessel got these back, she ran away and never looked back. What she says now is after she ran away, her mum has been a little bit of her mother. acting out in retaliation, including wiping her YouTube accounts, even though she started a second one, the same thing has happened again. Jesselin says, quote, what kind of mom has such disregard and hatred for a daughter who's only given her respect that she probably didn't deserve? A daughter who took care of her and loved your other children and spent years making content that you controlled and signed contracts that you decided only to save little to nothing when I turned 18. And yet

you still have the audacity to say that I'm being brainwashed. So here's how the rest of the video is going to go along with some screenshots and other receipts. You should have left me alone, left my content alone, and I wouldn't have to resort to this. It is just so appalling, listening to some of the details. What did you guys think of it? So many of these cases I've never heard of the family bloggers because I'm not in that space. I forget how popular it is, how many followers each of them can have and how much money there is to be made. And it's the insidiousness of the abuse. Like there's the financial abuse of sort of deciding that this money should be yours, not putting any of it aside for the person that's making the money, then there's also the physical abuse

and also this digital abuse now, which I've never really thought of. I've seen it in cases of spousal and abuse from a partner when they'll go on and wipe socials as punishment. And I just never thought, because it's just kind of such a vile thing to do. It's so, so cruel, so controlling, the idea of a parent doing it to their own child. It completely beggars belief. I know we're in the air and now where we're going to see more and more of these. They've already started coming out. My thinking is there are these extreme examples of which we've got quite a few now, but then there is like a sliding scale. And anyone who makes this content should be prepared at some point for their child to grow up and have a different take on it and either demand proper compensation, demand a conversation or just feel like you did take something from me that I can never get back. I think it's such a risk as a parent to decide that your children will do this kind of work.

I'm the same as you, Beth. I never follow family cancer. And I never really go on YouTube anyway. but when I see children, child creator accounts on Instagram, I actually kind of swipe past because I don't even want to be complicit in watching their content. It's so shocking and harrowing. And I mean, we have heard different iterations of this story. Often actually more recently it's been from child actors who've said that their parents

have kind of kept all of their income and they've got older and realized that there's nothing left for them. But this is such a new frontier. And we had so many DMs and I agree, which is like before we even get to the point of the abuse and the financial abuse and the fact that her mother completely exploits, her. It's also the fact that this is work and why are children working? And I think that has to be recognised because I think so many people do see this as a hobby. So many young children want to have TikTok accounts and YouTube accounts and they very much do want to do it from a place of, I guess, that's what is made to look fun on the internet. But it is quite an odd thing to happen

because when you compare it to an actor, if your child showed a real prowess or a keenness to act, I guess you probably would take them to acting class and you let them do that. Like now that YouTube as a real career. If you've got a kid who's like, mom, I really want to do this, should we even be letting them do this? And we did have a couple of messages about regulations. So Laura said content creation is work. So labor laws should apply to this. I think it's such a big problem with the internet and social media, but all of this has just happened with now this sort of like retroactive regulation that isn't even being put in place yet. But it's such a bad example, but it's so terrifying. And even for the kids that

have supportive parents, I think it's a really scary role. to go down. What did you make of a wheelchair? Everything you said, both of you, especially with this new frontier of digital abuse, the kind of levels of exploitation, the fact that children working is already just such a horrible concept and just such a bizarre concept is spot on and it's what I thought. And just I'll never get over the details of these stories. They really are just so harrowing. And this story in particular, the violence of it and also the complete disdain. she repeats from her mum and how she was controlled and when it came to punishment she could get out of by creating content it's so sickening also i did a bit of research and i found that in the

us there are evolving laws around kid influences and in illinois and a few other states it is now required that parents have to set aside a percentage of earnings in a trust for children under 16 and yeah that is something but i don't know if that goes far enough you know these stories are pouring out you're right i'm not a massive fan of family YouTubers or vloggers. I used to watch the Michelax. I don't really know what's happened to them. I kind of stopped watching them about like eight years ago. But these children are growing up and it's getting to the perfect age where they're having a voice and able to reflect on it. So I think this is the beginning of the tap and more and more of these stories are going to come out. And I don't know if the laws have caught up to even appreciating the level of trauma and impact on these children's lives yet because they're only just starting to speak out. Yeah, I did see the Illinois law and it's the same I think in California and maybe, I don't say Utah, but possibly not. But they're not state enforced. So it's really up to the parent to put aside that money. What it would mean is that when the child turns 18, they could then sue the parent. But who is actually going to do that? I think that would take an incredible amount of courage and also potentially severing yourself from like parent support, parent relations. I think that is such a failure. It's a nod towards protecting children, but it just doesn't do enough. Because I guess if it requires that a newly 18 year old, you know, was just a child a second ago would then have to go against their family. take it kind of to the law. I just can't see that happening a lot. So I just looked at up in the UK, there are a few specific laws about child YouTubers, but they have to adhere to general child performance

regulations if they're monetised. So they require local council licences and in some cases work hour limit. And the online safety acts aim to enforce platforms to protect children from harmful content by late 2025. And YouTube requires creators to be 13 plus with parent consent needed for those age 13 to 17. But it's just, it sounds like something, but it really isn't. I mean, even just on Instagram sometimes I will go find these girls that look about five doing sort of like makeup tutorials or just chatting to the camera and you go on the account and it's like managed by parents. And you just think, I don't care if this says managed by parents. This should absolutely not be happening.

If your child really wants to do that, fine, set them up a private account where you and whoever really close family can follow it and they can feel like they're part of it. But in what world is this needed? It's absolutely terrifying. I mean, her video was so hard to stomach and hard to watch. And what an eloquent, clever young lady she is. Like the way she was speaking, I couldn't quite go over it. And it's so distressing.

I can't quite get my head around someone who would do this. You almost are like, this can't be that common. But it's very fascinating how many examples, again, not as many from influences of this, do exist. I kind of am a bit like lost for words. I know what you mean. And it's interesting that it doesn't really seem to have deterred children, being part of YouTube, content or just even a part of other people's content. And we had a message from Maya who said, personally, I don't ever see a scenario where allowing your children to be part of public

content could ever be okay. It's exploitative. The children can't possibly understand or consent their image and extensive details of their life being publicly available forever. And making any child ever feel responsible for the financial stability of their family is blatantly horrible. She went to say, I know it's not that simple as many kids now see influencing as a desirable career and I see how many parents feel that they are just being supportive of their child's dreams. And I was particularly interested in the second point she makes, which is I'm open to the way Louise Pentland has handled Darcy's social media, editing and uploading her content and closely managing her social media herself. And I understand why she's done this. And of course,

she is a bit older, but I still really struggle to know how I feel. And instinctively, even this makes me feel uneasy. So just for context, Louise Pentland is like one of the OG influencers. She was part of the big UK crew with Zoella, Joe Sugg, all of them. She has, I think, nearly like 5 million followers. And her daughter has an Instagram now with 50,000 followers captioned Diary of a Teen Life. So I think what Maya is saying is Louise has allowed her daughter to enter this world, but is the one managing that account. And I was wondering, what do you guys think of that? Because that also makes me feel quite weird.

I don't know how I feel about that. I don't feel great about it. I don't feel great about it either, I think. And we've got a message from Francesca who says my daughter, who is 11 is desperate for a YouTube count and I keep saying no, which I think is a parent's job. It's obviously as you get older, it's such a big decade. An 11 year old is really nothing like a 17 year old except from the both minors. But it's a parent's job to safeguard ahead of being like fun or agreeable or seen as nice by the child. Obviously you have to be nice, but a child doesn't have to think you're being nice. I mean, I wanted a lip piercing and whatever else when I was and I thought when my mom said no, she was being a cow.

just being a parent. And I can't imagine the pressure of parents are under because, of course, this is not just mothers. It's a really uniquely modern phenomenon. But again, it's safeguarding. It is, even with everything done right, I do think it allows a child and a minor, a level of visibility on the internet, an exposure to trolls, which you cannot control and an exposure to predators that you cannot control, even with all of that knowledge and that safeguarding, that you can't really undo if they decide that they want to be a private person later on in life, but they're already massively famous and recognisable. It takes that away. There is only so far that you can scrub the internet. And it's just such a big decision for a young person to make. I think you can trust children

and minors to be, have their head screwed on, but they're not adults making adult decisions. They don't have your insight. I'm not suggesting that she's made a predatory or bad decision, but I just think it would give me so much pause. Who knows who that child is going to become? I also think it sort of pipelines them to one career. Ahead of being 18, I'm really anti that. I'm really pro follow your dreams, have a real clear idea, but also explore. And it sets things in stone and in motion that you can't then shake away that easily. I agree with all of that. And we had a message from Claire on the privacy thing that said, I think it deprives them of the right to privacy before they can meaningfully consent. And in several documentaries on the subject, it's been clear the exposure to

pedophiles is very obvious. There just doesn't feel like anyone wins here. The performative nature when kids inherently just want to please their parents feels really abusive and it seems hard to do it in a responsible way, given this inherent drive. I am so anti-children on the internet. Like I really just, I'm baffled by, I literally this morning scroll past a woman who every day does like a fit check with her five children, one of them being a newborn baby, and she was doing them with her bump. Then when the baby was born, she kind of holds up the baby. And something about it, I was like, it feels, and I don't know anything about this woman, but it has started to feel like kids are content, some people. On the other hand, when you were talking Beth about, you know, your mom

not letting you have a lip piercing. My parents were really strict. We never had MSN in the house. I never really went on a computer at home. So I would just go around to my friend's houses and use their MSN and the parents who were a bit less strict. I would get away with doing whatever we were doing, trying to go on chat roulette, whatever, they had no idea. Children do find a way around this. So I do also understand this idea that, well, if I'm letting them do it, it's under my control. I'm putting boundaries around it. Then maybe this is a safe way to let them explore, which is why I think it does come down to just legislative change.

Because the internet is such an unwieldly beast. I was like, could we have a social media just for kids? And I was like, no, because you'd have to have adults in there monitoring it. But the minute you get adults in there, that's the problem. Like, the internet is the problem. It is the actual thing that is the issue. So it is hard because I personally don't think any children should be posted online. And if there was a way that you could save God, you could do it.

Great. But I can't quite envision what that would be. At the same time, I do understand children, especially teenagers, are very clever. There is something to be said for parents thinking they're going to do this anyway. It's a bit like the whole alcohol thing. again, my parents were so strict about that. If you let your kids have a party at home, let them have a few drinks, at least you see what they're doing.

They're not in a field blacked out, as I often was. I'm sure you guys were as well. Such happy memories. Never, never me. No, of course. Yeah, and I'm not even going to begin to offer what I would do in that situation because I don't know. I actually don't know.

And those are the questions when I ever think about if I do become a parent. Those are the ones that I get really confused about because I don't know what the right thing to do is and I see merits to both of them. I do think with the internet, there's one thing about posting children online, which I get, you know, if you're not a content creator, if you're just an average person, that already feels quite polarising and I've seen that people get quite stuck on that. That's one thing. But then when you are a YouTuber, that just feels like something else because you are broadcasting your children. And I do think that that's the thing that makes this easier to feel aligned on because having a few million followers and then just assuming that your children

are okay to be a part of that just feels like a whole different beast. And it does feel like say my parents were TV presenters on the BBC, it would not be a given that I would be part of their bulletins or like part of the TV programs that they're involved with. But it feels like with YouTube, because it's so intimate, you're just grabbing a camera and putting it in your house. The same rules and the same kind of assumptions don't follow. It just feels like people don't consider it in the same way, which I think is the wrong part of it. I guess the casualness and maybe just the intimate nature of content creation makes people feel like, yeah, I want to share all of my life, you know, my time with my husband, my wife, whatever, everything that comes with it. But

that stuff is on the internet forever. And also, having read yesterday, there is a big part of family vlogging in it and especially the ramifications on children. And this and this video that we've watched really hammers home, how you can never undo what has happened to children by being dragged into this process. You will never undo it. They have no part in it. They had no ability to consent to it, but they are left dealing with the ramifications. And it is a huge thing. We had a message from Sarah who said, not too long ago, a YouTube channel in Holland that investigates certain institutions, people, etc. And actually they had a big expose, she said, on Holland's version of kind of Me Too and the sexual misconduct in Holland, which led to

a lot of these institutions being shut down. So a very important. channel made an episode about child vloggers and how dangerous it was to essentially use your children to earn money for you. And this channel looked at the mental health implications and very often when they are the main breadwinners, they never see that money for themselves. They wrote, the problem is that there's just not enough regulations around this kind of thing. And with child actors, for example, there's very clear rules on how long they can work for and, you know, the essential need for parental guardians. But with YouTube, it's also new there's just no regulations and parents can decide what they want when it comes to their kids. And AKA this often means exploiting them. And the same channel showed experts on the topic explaining how harmful it was.

It's so grim. And I think when we do have these findings, it's so black and white immediately, like don't let your children do this. But parents or family bloggers will find a way they want to do it. It's them, they're driving it. It's like, well, they're your children. They want you to be happy. They're also probably in the moment feeling very, very special. I was watching, in anticipation, I watched Bad Influence, the Netflix documentary, also the name of an Ones excellent book, which came out, I want to say last year, a year before, because I'd not watched at the time.

I think I kind of knew as much as they wanted to know. And I didn't really learn anything apart from about these individual creators. I found it really upsetting because these are kids kind of under this umbrella of this one mom who is, you know, they're doing 10 hour, 12 hour days. They're treated quite poorly. There is age inappropriate content. I mean, this woman actually does on a live feed kiss a 17-year-old boy. It's just awful. But theirs is not a totally unusual case.

And they said these kids who are now maybe 18 to 20 oldest said that they felt like puppets. They felt taken advantage of. They didn't see the money. They were in really adult spaces. They were making money for someone else. It was like a racket. And I went to look at the focus of the documentary. She's not in it, but it's a child content creator called Piper Raquel.

She had millions of followers on YouTube. Her mom was the woman who was sued. I think for some, I can't remember what it was, so I won't guess, but she was in court for a lot of these charges. And I went, I wonder what she's doing now, whether she's creating content or whether she's kind of got free. A minute she turned 18, she was on Onlyfans. It was like an overnight. She was starting posting very different content. I mean, it's a career that if you want to progress as an adult, you can go down that room. And I'm not going to say that she's wrong, but at 18, having done nothing but make content since you were eight years old, it does feel to me, well, what else would you do? I found it all very sad, mostly probably because I was just looking at her.

as a 12 year old and then I went, oh, okay, she's 18 and she's doing this. I find it so frustrating that parents claim ignorance on this when their photo of their child doing gymnastic or eating banana has half a million saves. You know what's going on. You are creating fodder for truly the worst people in society because that's who we share the internet with. I think there just needs to be the most stringent laws. Any brands, also they get involved with this, I think need to go to jail. You're right. Stuff like that and I remember seeing stuff about that, like all the gymnastics things and I would feel sick to my. summit and I would be really upset whenever I saw that content kind of reshared. I guess on the other

side to try and be generous to content creators. I mean, I guess there must be a world in which some people lives in such a bubble and they've just always shared and they're very kind heart of people. So they genuinely don't see this evilness and they think, this is my lovely family. I want to share my lovely life. I'm sure those people do exist. But weirdly, it's making me think of the Brooklyn Beckon thing and how much there was such a dearth of empathy for him. Because even though he has got probably, I do imagine, I mean, I'm just imagining here, but David and Victoria probably are quite supportive parents. They've clearly helped him throughout his life, but I do think that you kind of ignore that clearly his level of exposure and like not having a choice around how much he was exposed has caused some damage to him. And he's in like the best case scenario of having being exposed by famous parents. And then you like kind of scale that back all the way to this YouTuber that we spoke to where she was in such a terrible position. It just feels like there is no good outcome, no matter how good your intentions are, no matter how great a parent you are. taking the child's autonomy away from making that decision is, I think, crucially, just going to be

harmful no matter how you chop it up. And Daisy said the same. She said, children are children, they simply cannot understand the lifetime implications of this. And therefore, I do not believe they can give proper consent. See also the thousands of parent bloggers who share their daily lives, including warts and all content of their young children and babies to millions of people. Sorry, I think it's totally immoral and unnecessary to use your child's identity to build your own brand online. She goes on to say she does follow some content creators who managed to talk about parenthood and just don't show their kids at all and she thinks it can be done. And I agree. And I think that's where we've got to get to it. I think intention doesn't really matter anymore. I think we've got to wise up. I think

there has to be legislation. I don't think that we should be allowed to take away a child's choices in this. And I understand the complexities of that because there are industries in which children work, whether you're an athlete, whether you're an actor, you know, influencing and YouTubeing is a job now. So I guess there is some grey area there when your child has talent in a certain area. You know, how do you cut it up? And I guess that's where it's confusing. But I think if the reason they've arrived there especially is just because you've been sharing them since they were two months old, I just don't think you should be allowed to do that, to be honest.

And I guess children also need media that's children-centric. But then the things that they're watching should be appropriate, not just on screen, but also behind the scenes. It's really, really difficult when it is such a new industry and unregulated. And they talk about this a lot in bad influence. I think, yeah, maybe I have Taylor Lorenzo on. I can't remember to discuss how this is such a new frontier. And so all the other things that you would see, like mandatory school, people checking in. Layers and layers of support aren't there. Because I guess you would think, well, it's their parents.

They would never do anything to put them in jeopardy. And I think that is sad, but naive. Yeah. And as you were talking, I was just thinking about the fact that we've spoken a lot about how we were the last generation to maybe retain a lot of childhood away from the internet. and it was there, it was kind of loitering, it was orbiting us and it slipped in, but I think it was about, at least for me, age 15, where it was like part of my daily habit being on Instagram and Facebook and whatever. Whereas children today, it is just a different thing completely, apart from consuming, you know, Miss Rachel, who I love, but just like all of these kind of content creators and being a part of the internet, they engage with each other through the internet quite a lot. You know, Roblox is this huge thing. There's so much about skin fluences.

and like gen alpha just becoming content creators. But not only are they influenced by the internet, it's just now becoming normal for them to be creating on it too. And I think this idea of having a childhood away from the internet just is no longer possible, but it's also elusive and exclusive. And we had a message from Lucy who said, as a new mum, this is something that really needs monitoring more and more. It is so scary to think my child could have a full-time job before the age of 16 to 18. The legal age to work is that for a reason, so that children. children can enjoy being children. I find it incredibly sad that some children won't get the same childhood and memories as what I hope to give mine, all because their parents potentially want to

take a hobby or creative outlet and exploit it for money and making opportunity. Why are we living in a generation where children aren't children anymore? And I do think about all of the amazing things, you know, content creation can do. And I just think, but why does it need to be broadcast? Why does it need to go anywhere. Why does it need to be monetised? You know, making videos, sending it to each other, filming each other. Those are things we did with like camcorders and we would do music videos and that was amazing. There was just no point of it going anywhere, not being consumed by people, not being rated and reviewed. And I think that's the thing. It doesn't need to go anywhere. Yeah, I have memories of when I was in primary school and we would all go to the Scars House and

we'd always like film these videos and we often would put them on Bebo. But I was just thinking, what happened to Bebo? Was that just kids on there? Because we did do photo shoots and I'm really remember us all wearing like neon pink bras from Lazenza with those sunglasses that weren't sunglasses, they just had kind of slats and doing like photo shoots every week. But like no one was seeing it. I also remember making my whole family do a YouTube video to a music video and then I just put it on YouTube. But like no one watched it. I just uploaded it for the sake of sort of putting it somewhere. But we did want to do those things that we love taking pictures. That was always such a big thing. So that does exist. The other thing and again, it makes me kind of think of AI. It's just so ubiquitous.

I can't imagine a world without the internet and without social media. So for a young, people growing up with it, it is almost impossible to see how they would even fathom what a life would look like without that, especially if their parents aren't modelling that, if their parents' lives are very online. This is why I think it has to be beyond our choices. I think it has to be a legislative thing, but I don't even know how much these social media laws are working. And my final thing was, I love that account recess therapy. This is the only place where I probably engage with videos of content children on the internet. But even recently with that, I've been thinking, is this ethical? Like, the videos are so funny and the children are so charming. But is that right? Like, why are the parents

consenting to this? And it's so sweetly toned and stuff. And they really do like make me really happy. But more and more I've thought, I just don't think this is right either. I do exactly the same. Not with that account, but if I'm on TikTok and then a funny kid, like funny baby, funny kid, I'll laugh and like it. And then I'll go, hang on, unlike it. I can't tell the algorithm that this is what I want because this is, it's an audience of just so many millions of people for a child who is doesn't understand their own feet. It's really, and I'm training my brain to be like, this actually, the reality of this is darker.

And I suppose the one thing that I am struggling with is, I understand that this is for families. It is a way to make money. It's a way out of a situation. But it puts such a huge pressure on a child or children to provide for adults. That is an ethical. The fact that we live in an unethical society and unequal society where people are very, very struggling,

and they don't have many roots out, doesn't make exploitation not exploitative. It just the thing that needs addressing and redressing is society, not having children as breadwinners, especially as we know it exposed them to all kinds of predators. And actually, someone in the documentary called Sarah Adams, her handle on TikTok is at mom.uncharted. I followed her for a while.

I think she's great at educating on precisely why these accounts are wrong, how it harms the children, and reminding you that it's an adult behind the camera and adult handling the money. And also on the darker side, she gets really into it on how predators especially take this content, repurpose it, the things that you would think this is super harmful. Children eating all kinds of fruit, for example, is actually fodder for truly the worst offenders. I would really recommend, if you are on the fence, go and look at her stuff because she is really no nonsense with it.

She's really fantastic. The only other thing I'd say to that, which is so weird to think about as well, is the worst affected accounts are actually the ones that are, because you're right, Content creation can actually, not always, because obviously privilege also helps, but it can be sort of a meritocracy and it can give people wealth and privileges that they wouldn't be able to access normally, which is an incredible thing. But inversely, with the families that do make a lot of money, they're the ones that are getting millions of views and their children are getting even more exposed and it is extremely lucrative. And so maybe the families that have got small accounts that it doesn't really work for, their children, there's still a risk, but it's actually lower risk. And the thing that is baffling is the astronomical amount of money that people can make when their children are involved. And I've even thought about this for myself. If I ever had children, I 100% will never post them online. I don't even know if I'd do the thing of the back of their heads. I think I would just be like they're not featured. I don't know if I'd say their names. I've thought about it. But I also know that that will harm me in a way. If I'm still in this industry and I hold that back from my audience, that will be

something that some people won't like because they want access to that. And so it's such an odd thing to think about and I find it interesting as we get to this age and more and more creators that I know are having children or people that I follow and I'm finding it fascinating to watch those who decide to share those who I feel like are turning a bit of a blind eye to this. I don't know how you've missed out on these conversations which have been going on for so long and those which, you know, are making very concerted efforts to protect their child's anonymity and their childhood and their freedom. It's very interesting to watch and it's interesting because a lot of these creators, the other thing I guess is her parents, the creator that we're talking about,

are older than us. So there is something to be said that maybe people in their 40s, I mean, her mother was obviously extremely abusive, but some of the older ones maybe didn't know the dangers of the internet as much. I don't know how a millennial or Gen Z parent could kind of use that as an excuse. Did you guys actually just one last thing for me. Did you see that? I think it was an Irish kind of PSA educational video about it was a child and shopping centre with a parent and a man stops and asks after the child and knows all these things about the child. And it just exposes how much we, like, I know it's really good. I'll find the link and I'll post it.

And I struggle with these creators. I struggle with anyone who's had a child. And then I suddenly, I know the child's name. I know the child's favorite cartoon character. I know the child's nickname. I know all of their grandparents' names. I know the front door of their house looks like. I know the area that they live in.

I know the favorite snack or the inside joke of a child I will never meet. It is an absolute gold rush for predators. I really, and it is millennial parents. And I don't think there's sadly an excuse. any millennial. We were hammered with digital safety stuff at primary school and then secondary schools. I can't jive with the, uh, willful ignorance defense. I guess elder millennials though are old, a lot older, aren't they now? Than us. It's true. But I, you know, I do remember there was, it was a lot of stuff for children, but it was really, the internet was understood through

the lens of, you don't know who you're talking to. Yeah, that's true. I don't, I wonder, anyone in their 30s at least, I will say, you know who better. But that was my parents' fear with MSN and stuff. They were so scared of me to go on the internet because I think my parents are very kind of like straight-lined and straight-laced and quite fearful of stuff like that. So they were really worried that I would be talking to random men on the internet, which I was obviously.

But I wasn't telling they were right. So you're right. It has been like it's almost like that fear's dissipated as the internet's got even bigger. It's weird. So I forgot about this, but I went through my pitch archives. And in 2023, there were. was this massive story that I was pitching with the Sarkoni Jolie's, this Irish family with 1.6

million YouTube subscribers. And 12 years later from when they first set up their family vlogging channel, they apologized for posting their children and they deleted all of their back catalogue. And that was a really interesting pivot, I thought, and some accountability from a family who were some of the biggest creators in that field. But I thought that was going to be a real turning point in a watershed. And it really hasn't been at all. it didn't lead to anything. It feels like the genre is still thriving. Yeah, was that Stacey Dooley did.

I'm not watched the episode. She did a kind of Stacey Dooley sleeps over with that exact family. And it was quite controversial because she asked those questions. It's such, they are, yeah, they were on my radar as someone that I really did not think we're doing. Good job. Thank you so much for listening. And for all of your opinions and takes on this topic. We genuinely read them all and they guide our discussions.

And if we could read them all out, we would. So please do keep sending them. Please also give us a follow on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is Content Pod and a lovely review would make our entire weeks and months. So please do if you haven't already. We'll see you as always on Friday. Bye! Bye!