I watched a documentary recently called ‘Showbiz Kids’ where a bunch of former child stars were interviewed. It was very interesting to hear from the ones who had never actually wanted to be child actors but their parents had forced them into it, either to compensate for their own failed dreams, or generally just for the income. One in particular (Wil Wheaton, who played Gordy in Stand By Me) was so deeply resentful of his parents and if being forced into the public eye. To this day they don’t have a relationship and he feels as though his entire childhood was sold off and commodified.
Now granted the child stars of the family vloggers today don’t have to spend endless hours away from home on film sets. Also generally a lot of legislation has gone through to protect child actors, their income goes into a forced savings account, they’re limited to a certain amount of hours etc. But what’s sad for the kids in Internet vlogs is that the entire concept of vlogging is still in its infancy. So they are effectively the pioneers and will set the standards. Who knows when and if they will grow up to read about themselves on forums and see how their childhoods became public fodder for strangers to debate over. Or if future classmates or even work colleagues they’ll come across who may well have watched them grow up online and had access to many details about their private lives. Bottom line is no matter how well meaning or protective these parents try to be, they have, without consent, made public spectacles of their children's lives. And there is no way for them to tell what the fallout of that will be once those children grow up and are able to look back on it and speak for themselves.
. The way the education system is here, I wouldn't hesitate to send a child if I had one to a private school...I never would have said that years ago but our education system keeps going downhill. Whatever she is, I'm sure she has her reasons.