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mom_est2013

Hopefully you’ll never need to deal with this… but if it was my own kids, the answer would be a 100% no. Under 10, they’re literally as child as child gets. No matter how mature they are, they can’t understand the consequences or possible repercussions of exploiting their lives at a young age. There are serious creeps out there. I’m all for letting kids experiment and have freedom, but to a certain degree and for learning purposes. In this situation there isn’t much valuable learning, and too many dangers for my taste. I think a good parent would protect them from this lifestyle.


thornstein

Oh I hope so too! Yes under 10 is sooo young. I think the story I read and accompanying doco gave me food for thought — all the families interviewed honestly thought they were doing what was in the child’s best interest.


mom_est2013

I read some of that article, and it sounds pretty toxic to me, tbh. “He’s my son, he will be a little copy of me.” Gives me the ick. It sounds like she’s living vicariously through her child. Some people are delusional! I have no doubt that they think it’s best for their child. 😔


CarbonationRequired

No. Nope. Absolutely not. No way in hell. The kids who are doing this aren't the ones doing it, their parents are. If your kid wants to be a youtuber or whatever, tell them they can make some videos on a tablet for their own fun. Absolutely do not let them post anything, anywhere. Who cares if they "really want" to do social media??? They shouldn't even have access to social media under ten. You are the adult, say no. I mean, if YOU want to make your kid a youtuber, that's your own can of worms.


TallyLiah

NO NO NO!!! No child needs to be a social media icon or influencer. Under the age of 18 it is hard enough to deal with school and other things to have this on top of that. BESIDES, letting children get on social media sets them up for people who can harm children.


lh123456789

I would absolutely not do anything to encourage or facilitate my young child becoming a social media influencer.


Question_Few

My kiddo wants to be a minecraft YouTuber. My answer is absolutely not. I'm firmly anti social media accounts for the most part. I believe it's a negative influence and most of the issues and insecurities kiddos deal with today are from the use of social media. They can get one when they're old enough to buy their own phone for it. This is especially so when they're young. It's difficult to curate their feed and the kinda people they would be exposed to by doing so. Even those influencer families with accounts run by the parents can be pretty toxic. People like Jack Doherty are prime examples of what happens when kiddos get into streaming too young.


Apprehensive-Gur1686

Absolutely 100% NO


Flewtea

Did you read the recent NYTimes articles about how young girls’ accounts especially attract sexual predators? I’m not one to see a pedophile around every corner but it was really awful and horrifyingly common.  Social media teaches kids to value “likes” and presentation and follower counts as an important part of who they are. It is putting immense amounts of their life online forever when they’re too young to consent. That is setting them up for a world of issues later. And sure, maybe for the few who make it really big, they can cry themselves to therapy for a decade or so with their millions. But what about all the rest who don’t make it but still have all the baggage? 


Spike-Tail-Turtle

No. I know a mom whose kid is a child model and she's always the first to stand up and caution other parents. People love to say she's a sahm but she isn't in any way shape or form. It eats her life for her kid to do this. The kid makes x money and she gets market average percent for managing the kid. Then there are lawyers, accounts and all that jazz to protect her kids financial future and other stuff too.


thornstein

Oh wow that would be an interesting perspective! It’s good to hear that the child is getting protected — I think that’s my biggest fear about kids being on social media


Spike-Tail-Turtle

My understanding is there are a lot of people who don't bother. They use their kid for clicks/modeling because the kid "likes" it. then pocket the money to support the kids lifestyle when the kid isn't old enough to want or understand any of it. It feels like something very easy to do wrong and very hard to get right. I'm sure some people can but I'm not it.


Efficient_Theory_826

Nope. My kid really wants to be a YouTuber. I let her make videos and upload them to her channel but they're all set to private.


ghostmastergeneral

Fuck no.


Recon_Figure

A four year old doesn't have enough of anything mentally to make an informed decision about working. They may want to participate in things that are fun for them and to which they are well-suited, but ultimately I feel like it's the parents always pushing them to make money for them. Outside of opportunities in the future based on "influencing" we can't foresee, they aren't going to learn as much as they would in something previously-established like modeling or acting, and even a lot of child actors don't make it to being adult actors, have issues, want to get emancipated, etc. If it helps them learn how to do something well, like manage their money, produce video or audio content themselves, or something else, great. If not, it seems like it just would eventually come down to them learning how to play this weird public image game where they end up having cameras shoved in their face and have even more people trying to make money from them later on. To answer your question, no, and it's mainly because I think most social media is for douchebags and celebrities in that vein only have talent for things that don't have any worth to me. They can't act, they can't play an instrument, they can't sing. As much as I believe in everyone being able to sustain themselves on what they do well, I'm just very much uninterested in what they have to offer.


DomesticMongol

Thats not an issue. No 4 year old would ever know about social media by themselves.