Family Vlog Channels Are Sad 

These poor kids are literally going through a Truman Show scenario, except that they've known their whole live that every moment has been broadcasted on RU-vid for all to see. I can't imagine how scarring that would be

I think 10+ years down the road we will see some lawsuits when these kids get older.

I remember RU-vidr Totalbiscuit mentioning that his young son wanted to be in his videos, but that he turned him down every time. He knew as soon as he exposed his son to the true force of the internet, it would change his life forever, most likely for the worse. I admired a lot of TB's qualities, but his understanding that he needed to be a responsible parent in that way always stood out to me.

there's gotta be a wave of these kids in a couple years time when they can make their own content who expose their childhood situations

It's just sad that some people would do fucked up shit to their children just to make money

"Someone committed a drive-by ankle breaking on my son!" Wow, CoryxKenshin is acting _different_ these days.

8:28 “Raise their kids through the RU-vid comments” there’s a frightening sentence!!

My friend got into watching rich adult youtubers living the bachelor life, and I can't help but think he was living vicariously through them. I'm not a psychiatrist nor is it any of my business, but it just seemed unhealthy, maybe even depressing.

As a parent, family vlogging is despicable. The kids always seem like shells of humans, never knowing if the conversation is a genuine or for the vlog. I remember waking up when I was 8ish getting up in the middle of the night and peeing in the kitchen trash can...

And again it goes every child deserves a parent but not every parent deserves a child

That Ryan's World kid is another Young Anakin waiting to happen, it's so sad and uncomfortable seeing his face on toys everywhere

true charlie,the only family channel i know that isnt like this is fgteev,they never cared about views or anything but raising their kids and making good content for other kids on youtube.they really raised me and now im proud of them like 10 years later.

Just watch. 10-20 years from now,these kids are gonna sue their parents for the psychological damages.

its almost like we havent seen what so much pressure and attention has done to child stars consistently in the modern era. i cant imagine having the cameras in your actual home, having every relationship you have with a loved one have a performative aspect to it, can possibly to do a child. i worry about ryan a lot. i worry about all these kids. its some evil shit and these channels should damn well be held to child labour laws.

Social media is not for little children. Kids deserve the innocence of childhood. Exploiting your child’s emotions for money on the internet should be a crime.

My mom use to do a "family blog" where she photographed (thankfully not all video) a large majority of me and my siblings growing up between the years 2002-2011. She shut it down around the time family video channels were getting exposed for the same things now (overworking children, strangers using it for things that aren't okay, etc) but it's wild to think if it wasn't like this and it was on RU-vid how different everything would be.

It's gotten so bad that there are now scholarly essays and articles about the abuse behind these vlog channels. I wrote an argumentative essay on this topic for one of my college classes and if I hadn't already been against family channels, I sure as hell am now after that research

I was literally thinking about this yesterday... The whole toy review channels. Crazy that you talked about it.

in the future we’re gonna need special therapists for the kids that used to be parts of family vlogs

It's interesting to hear about this. I wonder if there's been research done about how social media family bloggers are part of their target audience's coping mechanisms. I'm sure this has been going on ever since celebrity status has existed though (forever)

When I was a child my stepmother always called and told her sister everything that has ever happened to me and it was traumatic to me I would tell her to stop it's none if her buisness and she would yell at me and tell me she can tell whoever she wants, I had nothing truly personal it was horrible. I couldn't actually imagine being on the internet for the whole world to see as a child Its unimaginable

childhood is embarrassing enough as it is, imagine every cringey moment of your childhood being widespread on the internet

Over in France, they're trying to pass a law to count it as child labour.

THAT "ZAMN!" THING IS AN ACTUAL UNIRONIC THUMBNAIL?????? I THOUGHT IT WAS MADE BY SOME MEME CHANNEL OR SOMETHING

Honestly tons of these kids from these channels are going to be really messed up when they grow up.

Another reason the disliked numbers should come back: to show that the general public doesn't want to see these horribly influential hunters exploit their children.

When I was a kid like 15years ago I went to school with a girl who’s mom ran a “mommy blog”. Privacy did not exist in that house, everything got posted. Her every tantrum, bad day, overtired whining or injury got posted for thousands of anonymous strangers and to make it worse kids at school found it and bullied her about it. A lot of kids weren’t allowed to be friends with her because they’d be talked about in the next entry. I fully believe mommy blogs and family RU-vid channels that post every day are abusive because to keep up with that schedule you have to do away with privacy to generate enough content

Another reason why the dislike counter should come back: To show that the general viewing public do not want to see these horrible clout chasers exploit their children.

Ryan Is literally set for life if he ever sees any of that RU-vid money...

It’s really sad for the children, they’re going to grow up one day and realize how their parents were exploiting them for money.

Along with family vlog channels, I absolutely HATE channels with neurodivergent kids and adults getting babied just because of their disability. I saw a mom on tiktok film her son having a breakdown and posting it on the internet for "educational" purposes. It's not educational, it's humiliating and its sickening how normal it is for neurodivergent people to be taken advantage of in vulnerable moments where privacy is needed the most.

How do we rebrand exploiting our children's privacy for money so it's socially acceptable? I got it! We'll call it a "Family Vlog Channel."

Charlie thinking he's gonna go to jail for pissing on his laundry is hilarious

This is also really enabling kidnappings. Ive heard a few mommy vloggers say the same thing: they had an incident where a stranger tried to pick up their kid from school. The person could give the kids full name, parents name, describe their car, house, activities, jobs. I feel like some daycares/schools could get tricked by this. Its just a matter of time.

There's not a single doubt in my mind that Ryan from Ryan Toy Reviews is gonna go through a rebellious phase when he realizes that his parents are stealing from him

Charlie should start a family vlog channel and call it Jesus, Mary and Joseph

In about 10-20 years an absolute avalanche of documentaries and books are going to come out from the kids of these families detailing how their childhoods were stolen and how fucked the household dynamics were, mark my words.

I've got a masters degree in child psychology, and honestly Charlie the points you raised are bang on. The saddest part was when you speculated that the majority of children watching these channels are those from broken homes. It's heartbreaking and at the same time the kid is watching a dysfunctional family without even realising they are. Being exposed to these shitty examples of parenting could really mess a child up in the future if they start a family of their own. This is how they're learning to be parents themselves.

The only “good” family vlog channel I’ve ever seen is this one woman on tiktok who started by just filming tiktoks of making her kids lunch, and her kids actually ASKED to be in the tiktoks, and whenever a kid is crying or doesn’t wanna be on camera she NEVER shows them on camera. And even just based on the way she packs their lunches and knows all their favorite foods and snacks is very very wholesome.

There is nothing creepier than the grown adults who revel in watching small children getting injured or being punished

The saddest part is that we cannot imagine growing up that way because we didn't, and we know it's wrong. But they don't. That's all they've ever known, it's normal for them. It would be odd if there was no camera around and that just breaks my heart.

I've had many arguments with my mom as a teen whenever she was sharing things about me with my own blood related aunts. I would have gone totally mad if she had shared my personal life with the whole world. At that age you're still discovering and experimenting and you don't need to be micromanaged by everyone giving their two cents.

It’s beyond impressive how this man always has the right words.

I feel very sad for the children in these videos, their disgusting parents exploiting for money is terrible. I'm surprised child labor and abuse laws aren't being enforced on these channels.

There's actually people on Reddit and Tiktok who are 16-20 who talk about their experiences being the children in family vlogs and how traumatized they are form it

I genuinely admire how Charlie is more of a concerned "parent" figure to those kids than to their original parents who filmed their life for years on camera without even considering how they feel. It was heartbreaking to think the negative long-term effects that the kids could have on this type of videos.

I just got back from a rlly toxic place and have been slowly recovering, and you have been helping me a lot with your videos that make me laugh honestly charlie. Ik you prob won't see this, but also all of you, this entire fanbase, for the most part, are just rlly cool and whenever I interact with any of you you're all usually rlly chill and I gotta thank you all for that... hopefully youtube won't delete this comment but thank you to anyone who sees this and to you bro

I honestly feel bad for the kids who are basically forced to be in front of a camera

My (mentally ill) mother watches family channels on RU-vid and she has no clue how they harm children. The one she watches FOSTERS and adopts, and currently has 21 children in their care. I cringe everytime she blasts it on her iPad. I was absolutely floored when I heard the parents asking all their kids for their ages, names, STATE, and not just their state...but TOWN that they all live in. Wtf? Not only are you showing your kid's face on camera, but now the audience knows their ages, names and where they live. Most of them ranged from 8-14. Absolutely no excuse to push a camera in your kid's face and encourage them to give out personal information.

These channels absolutely appeal to pedos. I remember reading a certain AMA on Reddit that made me realize real pedos will get off to even completely normal family pics randomly found on social media. So 'family vlogs' must be a goldmine to them. It's probably the main reason I hate this type of channel. The idea of parents exposing their children to really gross people for money is just deplorable.

"Nothing is more important than family. Aside from money, of course" -Vin Diesel after running out of gas

Those kids will never know a life where there isn’t a camera shoved in their face 24/7. They’ll never know privacy, they’ll never be able to set healthy boundaries between themselves and the viewers, and every tragedy or mistake will be put on the air for the world to see. It’s a sad way to grow up; it’s definitely not a healthy environment.

Shoutout to the "Family/personal" Vlogs that keep their kids off-camera and blur their faces when they do appear on camera and instead focus on their own adventures and hobbies. Respecting your child's privacy and autonomy and recognize that your child is not for monetization. Children are people. They deserve privacy.

Every child deserves a parent but not every parent deserves a child :(

I really wish kids, especially like Ryan, could be protected by Coogan's Law. Imagine because the sole breadwinner for your entire family, and never getting a chance to go back to just being a kid before the vlogs and fame. It's sad.

What scares me is that these families just view this as hating not someone being legitimately concerned. Which is disgusting and to be expected

Imagine the kids growing up and seeing themselves looking "happy" with their family on the internet.

Rhett and Link do parenting as a RU-vidr correctly imo They keep their kids' privacy and let them cameo on an episode if they want to occasionally, and most times will refuse to talk about anecdotes that their kids might not want to be out there. They put the kids first, knowing not all of them will grow up and want their bad days to be on the Internet for anyone to see

If moist was a superhero, his power would be common sense, and he would destroy anybody in his path

"disney kids" is what comes to mind when talking about this topic. Its sad, I hope all the kids turn out alright. Edit: I mostly mean child actors that have grown up and turned out to have some sort of mental illness due to their childhood, i didn't mean anything mean by it. have a good day! ps. love the vids, Charlie :)

If you ever think you are useless, remember that people are willing to sacrifice their child’s private life for clout

I bet we wouldn't even know about Charlie having a kid until we hear on the news that - a 16 year old drove to school on a mobi-huge go-kart.

I used to be a fan of Dance Moms and a lot of what you said aligns with what happened on that show. They'd put little girls in sexy and skin-colored clothes because that will draw people in out of sheer curiosity. Then people would talk about it and more people would see the show. I don't even know how many times the girls on that show had panic attacks. The producers LOVED that shit. These little girls are saying they can't breathe, and they're so stressed out because they're afraid of their dance teacher. And it's not like their moms could just take them somewhere else, they were contracted to it. And the producers set things up to make people look bad. It didn't matter if it was a child or an adult. For example, Peyton was told to say her and the rest of her team danced better than anyone else there, and they made it look like she said she was better than her teammates. She got death threats on social media because the producers made her look bad. Most of those girls are in their late teens and early 20s. The world watched them grow up. A lot of them (and their mothers) have been talking about the realities of the "reality" show they were on. How fake it was, how being on the show affected their mental health etc. It's becoming too easy to take advantage of vulnerable people and the reasons for doing so are much more narcissistic than ever.

"florida man puts his weiner on a pile of dirty laundry and pissed all over it" *that sounds about accurate*

Seeing as the prince family were in an underaged situation when they started dating it makes sense. He was 20 and she was 15. She literally had to ride her bike to get a pregnancy test because she couldn't drive.

Finally. I'm so happy he addressed this. Alot of these families prefer the views than the experiences with their children. Little to no privacy for these kids and the stress must be unreal.

The fact he had to specify he wouldnt do it as a 27 years old made me laugh so hard

Makes me glad I grew up in the good old days of the 2000s and early 2010s before this became a problem. I can't imagine growing up in this day and age with RU-vid now and social media.

Could you imagine being 19 years old, moving to a new city and everybody knows who you are because of your family vlogs? Fuck that

can't imagine the actual trauma you grow up with when every time you need to open up, confess, get upset/cry to your parents, their first reaction is to grab a camera and shamelessly record you without hiding it while you desperately seek actual parenting

I think naming your kid Steel is already a huge red flag, those are the parents you should preventively put under surveillance

Wow holy shit you nailed the kid viewer group. When I was a kid, I used to watch family vlog channels of families going on vacation, going to amusement parks, getting a new dog, etc. I watched that stuff because I wanted to be able to do that stuff. My family was (and still is) VERY low on money, so I would enjoy it through other people.

always hates those channels. they're disgusting,, honestly. wish they would be taken down because i feel like "exploiting other people's personal lives for views and money" should be something illegal. especially with children.

I have two daughters, aged 7 and 5. They started watching those channels and I cracked down on it hard. It was encouraging bad behavior, exaggerated and over-the-top reactions and no impulse control. I got them into let's play channels (like minecraft and mario) and music channels. Really helped getting those vlog channels out of their system.

I believe that when these kids grow older they'll likely realize that their parents never truly loved them like their own and almost always saw them as profit. That kinda stuff hurts man.

it depresses me when i go into my *local* tesco extra, which isn't even a full-scale tesco shop, and i see a pack of Ryan's World mystery minis or whatever

OMG THANK YOU!!! A few weeks ago my daughter was watching a family vlog channel and there was a wildfire, and the mom kept trying to volg and talk about upcoming things for the channel as the dad is telling her they need to pack because it was they were told to be prepared to evacuate soon. And it took the mom like a solid 10 minutes in video to finally start to take it “seriously”. I watched the whole thing because I just couldn’t understand how you would risk putting your family in danger to talk about your vlog. It was also the only video they had with the comments turned off!

For the adults who have this attachment to family channels, it feels very “One Hour Photo” like. “One Hour Photo” is a movie with Robin Williams playing a photo development technician at a store who gets obsessed with one of the families that gets their photos developed there because he’s lonely, so he forms this parasocial relationship with them and feels like he’s a part of their lives and imagines he’s a part of the memories in the photos they take. As for the kids of the family vlog channels, I can’t imagine the level of paranoia that would come from being constantly seen by millions regularly. Feeling like you have to be “palatable” and socially perform, becoming too closed off to enforce boundaries you never had, becoming too open because you’re used to the scrutiny and display, etc. it’s overall a destructive thing for everyone

How many of these child injuries could be avoided if they're parents were not recording and being responsible parents? If the injuries are even real in the first place.

It’s not even just family’s either, it’s couples as well. I remember seeing a tiktok of this woman filming her husband who was crying outside of the house with the caption “I’ve never seen him cry before, this is so sad”. Clearly the guy went outside and cried to avoid shame, and then she films him and puts him on the fucking internet for views.

I can’t imagine my childhood just being a life with a camera shoved in my face and having people watching me

The saddest part is that there is a demand for such vlogs. There are a ton of creeps who are watching those videos, following the lives of other families/ children. And while there will be demand, there will be supply.

My own family tapes cringe me out, I can't imagine my family putting my privacy on blast.

To have no privacy feels like a punishment made by the devil.

The concept of always being filmed and judged online all day every day seems like a vault-tech experiment from the fallout games

I can't get that clip out of my head of the mother and son inside their car at the vets that you shared, where she was asking him to cry for the camera over their dog. He legit just wanted a sincere cuddle from his mum and she was just asking him to look sad. The real gut punch was his response of "I am sad, I am crying" or words to that effect. It was months ago, and as a father it has stuck with me. How many more moments like that happen in these vlog houses? Makes me shudder man...

Charlie really sounds sincere and it's cool how much you can tell he cares. (edited penguins to Charlie due to constructive criticism)

I feel bad for Charlie. This is the only channel where I see over 20 bots in one comment thread. RU-vid needs to get they're shit together

It’s also crazy how long people have been trying to bring light to how strange family vlogs are especially after dady05 and nothings really been done.

Family vlog channels appeal to the people who feel insecure about their own families, they want to rise up to the standards of the “dream” family when in reality that family is miserable

As a parent I don't even put photos of my kid on social media. It feels wrong because they can't consent. When they're older I can imagine them being weirded out about all their pics being shared.

Family vlog channels are a form of child abuse. It's one thing if the channel was focused on something else and just happens to feature children now and then, but this takes it to another level.

The icky feeling I have after watching every single "family vlog" tells me everything I need to know about these channels. It's gross. The gut feeling I have about these families is just really, really bad vibes

Imagine these kids in 10-15 years looking back at the “family RU-vid” and seeing a extensive documentation of your childhood.

I was raised in a similar situation where I was constantly forced into a family blog against my will. I really hope these kids can escape as soon as possible.

I'd have to argue that this is probably part of the reason why kids don't seem to understand that they need to protect their personal information. I blamed Twitter culture and carrds for the most part, but that's probably small change compared to the damage family vlog channels do to the concept of privacy in growing kids' minds as they watch this content.

When Charlie mentioned the possibility of wholesome family channels, the one that popped to mind was the "How to Dad" channel. Compared to other channels it seems actually genuine, and just the family goofing around.

It's disgusting how these "parents" use their kids as a meal ticket. You know these parents abuse their kids off camera.

I've been saying now for a while: I'm sure, in upcoming years, we will be introduced with new child protection laws that will target family vlog channels, instagram babies/kids that are being put on the spot light by the parents etc. Because I think already it's getting out of hand with all these mommy vloggers. I see Europe starting this movement first, but it would be awesome if it started in US, because then it would be easier and faster pass in other countries too.

My son is 6. People say he is gorgeous and should be on SoMe - no he shouldn't. He shouldn't even do modelling. There's not 1 public picture of him. Just imagine him being 15, having pictures, let alone videos, of him as a 6 year old being publicly available......Some people are out of their minds.