Final Podcast- Mabel Vough

The podcast discusses the dangers of children being exploited online by their parents for internet fame. It highlights the case of a four-year-old TikTok star named Ren Eleanor, whose suggestive videos attracted pedophiles. The podcast also criticizes social media platforms for not doing enough to detect and prevent child exploitation. It mentions the case of Ruby Frankie, a mother from a popular YouTube channel, who was charged with child abuse. The podcast argues that exposing children to internet fame at a young age can have long-lasting negative effects on their development. It calls for better monitoring of content and protection of children's privacy online. Hello, and welcome to Gizmos, Gadgets, and Gas. I'm Mabel Vo, and today I'm going to be exposing your favorite and least favorite family content creators for exploiting children online. There's only so much you can hide on social media. So, last time we talked about legal disadvantages for children starring on social media platforms. This week, I'm going to be getting into the more emotionally damaging aspects of early exposure to internet fame. Pedophiles saving suggestive content is a major issue on social media currently, and certain parents are actively feeding into it. So buckle up, and let's get into it. My first example of internet success creating an unsafe environment for emotional development is a four-year-old TikTok star you might recognize. Her name is Ren Eleanor. Ren's mother started posting content of her daughter as a way to log footage of her daughter as she grew up. But to her mother's surprise, Ren was an instant internet success. Unfortunately, the viewers Ren's videos attract are not well-intentioned kids. Instead, these videos are being largely viewed by and interacted with by pedophiles. The most saved videos on Ren's page are the ones where Ren is eating a corn dog, which received 375,000 views, or other innocent activities that can be suggestive. Non-pedophile viewers realized the rise of more suggestive content receiving millions of saves and attempted to draw attention to it. Unfortunately, Ren's mother, Jacqueline, saw an opportunity to earn more money off of her daughter's content. So instead of taking down suggestive videos and granting her daughter some privacy, Jacqueline kept the videos up and started posting increasingly more inappropriate content of her young daughter. For monetary gain, Jacqueline began posting more suggestive content and deleting comments from concerned viewers. But because Ren is just four years old, she does not realize who can see her videos or what the content looks like to the world. So, let's talk about how social media is handling the rise of pedophiles using different apps to traffic children. Spoiler, they're not doing much of anything. According to an article written by the Sydney Morning Herald, Skype, Microsoft Teams, and FaceTime take zero action to detect child exploitation material in live video streams. Knowing that live stream sexual abuse to children is a growing crime, social media platforms need to do a better job at detecting inappropriate use of media. Without using detection technology, social media platforms are basically encouraging criminals to act on their sick fantasies because of the lack of consequences. Apple claims their reluctance towards monitoring content is due to their not wanting to invade users' privacy. However, I think criminals deserve to have their privacy invaded for preying on innocent children. As I said before, having a successful internet career as a toddler or young child creates irreversible developmental issues. Aside from non-regulated views and saves on content, I can say confidently that internet children's relationships with their parents are different from children without social media presence and their parents. Instead of viewing their parents as parental figures, children involved in internet fame are likely to have a boss-employee relationship with their families first. Moving on, child abuse on the internet is not limited to sexual violence. As I speak of familial relationships and abuse online, let's talk about Ruby Frankie and her channel, The 8 Passengers. The 8 Passengers is a successful family YouTube channel with over 2 million subscribers that many kids grew up watching. Ruby Frankie, the mother of this family, was known for her strict parenting and tricks and tips. Frankie was initially charged with six counts of aggravated child assault when her 12-year-old son escaped the household. Police reported that the young boy appeared to be severely malnourished. According to the Washington Post, Frankie's court documents report to her holding her son's head underwater and forcing her daughter to jump onto a cactus. Frankie also documented footage of her children carrying out unfair and unusual tasks. She would force her children to work outside in the heat, resulting in scabs, blisters, and other injuries. Frankie defended her abuse by saying her punishments were, quote, acts of love, end quote, because her children were, quote, evil and needed to repent, end quote. Now, Frankie has been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, but her children's torment is not over. Because The 8 Passengers has such a popular platform, the news of the court case went wildly viral. When the Frankie children grow up, they will not be able to escape people asking questions about their experiences. No matter how badly they want to live private lives, these children will not be able to escape the public eye. An article I read called Child YouTubers and the Specific Goods of Childhood When Exploration and Play Become Work explains how becoming a micro-celebrity at a young age is under-examined. Kids should be playing and living authentically. When playing becomes scripted and controlled by parents, kids do not learn and develop the way they are supposed to. Because the rise of social media is so new, we do not know the exact effects it has on mental and emotional development. But Anka Gayus says that childhood is intrinsically valuable and there are certain duties and responsibilities parents must carry out to ensure the safety of their children while they go through the sacred process of growing up. Children who are exposed early on the internet are not granted the same space to learn and grow at a child's pace. Let's recap. Today, I talked about how social media negatively affects childhood emotional development. I also touched on how exposing children to internet fame before they are old enough to comprehend the internet and its purpose is dangerous because they cannot consider their audiences and how their content will be perceived. Along with that, we discussed pedophiles and the lack of consequences for online child abuse. Ruby Franke and her recent sentence got us talking about the possible impact her viral case will have on our abused children when they grow up. In short, child exploitation online is growing rapidly and it is time for social media platforms to do a better job monitoring content and protecting children and their privacy. Thank you for listening to Gizmos, Gadgets, and Gasps. I'm Mabel Vo. It is May 13, 2024. If you want to reach out for more information, contact me at mabel.vo at wagner.edu. Gotta run, but I'll talk to you soon. Mabel signing off. Thanks for watching.