Mental Health Journalist of the Year: Runner-up

Every family has home videos: grainy footage taken on old cameras, capturing memories that would  otherwise be forgotten. These are reminders of our childhoods, of family, of embarrassing moments.  However, the internet has ushered in a new type of home video, one in which shaky camera work is  traded for professional shots that make the ordinariness of everyday life look like a movie. One that  

encourages the monetisation of life itself and transcends the traditional boundaries of privacy to create  a reality in which both family triumph and tragedy is showcased for profit. Family vlogging is today’s  stage parent’s key to fame and by exploiting their child just like the child stars of yesteryear, these  children’s mental health may never recover. Think Judy Garland! 

There is no denying that family vlogging is lucrative, simply filming a ten-minute-long video of your day  could generate thousands. Top-rated children’s YouTube channel ‘Ryan’s World’, which features 10- year-old Ryan Kaji and his family, has over 31 million subscribers and is estimated to be worth around  $22 million. There are hundreds of family channels that list vlogging as their full-time employment.  However, no matter how sophisticated the editing, it’s the children that draw in viewers. 

Unlike child actors who have legal protection through the Coogan Law, which requires parents to give  employers proof of a trust fund in which 15% of the child’s salary will be deposited, there is no legal  protection for internet stars. The children are the breadwinners, yet there is no guarantee that they will  ever be compensated. For many children, every aspect of their lives is monetized. The mental health  affects this could lead to can be predicted. Even with legal protection, there are several former child  stars, such as Drew Barrymore and Demi Lovato, who have spoken about the pressures they faced  having to support their family financially and the negative affect that had on their mental health.  Imagine being twelve years old and knowing that your everyday life is the sole reason why your family  can afford to put food on the table, imagine knowing that videos of you potty training and going through  puberty are what keep a roof over your head. No matter how much you may want to stop vlogging,  perhaps because of bullying at school, hate comments or predatory messages, you feel you must keep  going. 

Recently, the Saccone-Jolys, family vloggers with a combined following on YouTube and TikTok of  around 4 million, have made countless videos about their 8-year-old daughter Edie being transgender. They claimed in an interview with Sky News that they chose to make Edie’s journey  public to spread awareness about transgender children, which, whilst important, can be done without  exploiting an eight-year-old’s personal journey to millions. Edie cannot consent to being posted on  public platforms, and there is no telling how this could affect her mental health in the future 

The recent #freeBritney movement highlighted that society is willing to support victims of childhood  fame and exploitation, but it was a long, public and acrimonious battle, all ironically played out in the  public eye, that finally achieved this.  

Maybe ‘home movies’ should be just that… for private and not public consumption.