As the internet grows along with these kids, two researchers have raised the question: are these children being exploited?<\/p>\n
Free labour or just a bit of fun?<\/h2>\n
Dr Crystal Abidin<\/a> from J\u00f6nk\u00f6ping University and Curtin University and Associate Professor Tama Leaver<\/a> from Curtin University are studying the outcomes of shared content between YouTube and TV programming.<\/p>\n Viral videos and social media are creating child stars and are then picked up as content on TV talk shows.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all seen what a rough time child stars can end up having (hey there, Macaulay Culkin).<\/p>\n Crystal says that, although these types of videos are adorable and parents often just want to share their pride, the potential for exploitation starts after a video goes viral.<\/p>\n The researchers use Danielle Bregoli as an example. Danielle, an \u201cout-of-control\u201d teenager, was a guest on the\u00a0Dr. Phil<\/em>\u00a0show last year. Although you\u2019d hardly call her adorable, her\u00a0appearance went viral<\/a>\u00a0and spawned the catchphrase \u201ccash me ousside howbow dah<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The 14-year-old now has 11.3 million followers on Instagram,\u00a0her own emoji<\/a>\u00a0and has just\u00a0released a single<\/a>. (This link comes with a warning for your ears.)<\/p>\n \u201cDanielle received a lot of flack for seeking attention on social media,\u201d Crystal says, \u201cbut we ignore the fact that the\u00a0Dr.<\/em>\u00a0Phil\u00a0<\/em>show also capitalised on her.<\/p>\n \u201cOrdinary children filmed this way are attractive because they are caught in usually funny, surprising or compromising situations and haven\u2019t learned how to react well.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Danielle was invited back for a follow-up visit to the\u00a0Dr. Phil<\/em>\u00a0show after her viral success.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a classic case of a viral video creating a micro celebrity,\u201d Tama says.<\/p>\n Exploitation also occurs when programmes such as\u00a0The Ellen<\/em>\u00a0DeGeneres<\/em>\u00a0Show<\/em>\u00a0find cute kids\u2019 videos on YouTube. They invite them on the show and then share the footage on their own YouTube channel.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a form of TV cannibalism,\u201d Tama says. \u201cThese videos provide free content for the programmes and often turn the children into social media influencers who then make money out of product endorsements.<\/p>\n \u201cEllen cannibalises the content by replaying and reposting it to her own social media channels.\u201d<\/p>\n The levels of exploitation can get much worse.<\/p>\n DaddyOFive<\/a>\u00a0is a YouTube channel where a married couple play pranks on their kids and make them cry. They film it and post it online.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the race for clicks and hits, they went too far,\u201d Tama says. \u201cOther YouTubers called them out. It\u2019s nice to see there was a line drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n Crystal and Tama presented their research at the\u00a0Digitising Early Childhood International Conference 2017<\/a>\u00a0hosted by ECU.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on\u00a0Particle<\/a>. Read the\u00a0original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the era of social media, what impact does being \u2018internet famous\u2019 really have on kids?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2670,"featured_media":6229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Kim Cousins","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/shutterstock_588446438.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anne","last_name":"Griffin-Appadoo","display_name":"Anne Griffin-Appadoo"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 14:09:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6228"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cash me ousside howbow dah<\/h2>\n
Symbiotic or parasitic relationship?<\/h2>\n