Influencers are taking the social media world by storm.

       For many social media stars, their work involves working from home while recording personal lives, but their kids are paying the price. Parents on social media have been accused of exploiting their own kids for views and compensation, eventually using the money they have earned for material items like houses and cars.

       For example, The Labrant Family, The Ace Family, and Eight Passengers, have all been accused of exploiting. But how do you know if the parents  are just casually choosing to share their happy life?

     The Labrant Family consists of two parents and four kids who have grown up on Youtube, even being featured in videos when Savannah was pregnant with them. Nine year old Everleigh has been featured on the channel since she was three. 

     Over the past few months, fans noticed that Everleigh looked uninterested and bothered by filming for the videos. When Cole and Savannah told Everleigh that they were pregnant with baby number four, Everleigh appeared to care less about the new member. 

      Shortly after, the family announced that Everleigh would be homeschooled to help with the children. Fans criticized the family for pulling their daughter out of school to help them out. 

      “I think they and other people do this because the more they spice it up, the more people watch, the more people will be like ‘What happens next?’” senior Maddie Collins said. “ If they don’t do anything interesting to other people, they are going to bring in their kids. The  kids can get more attention than their parents can.”

      The Ace Family has been accused of child exploitation by profiting from their family scandals. The deterioration of their parents’ relationship, the family’s struggle with debt, and the abandonment of their house have all been displayed to the public.

     “I would feel like I have no privacy, like that is obviously a really hard family issue that they are going through, and the whole internet knows about it,” says senior Amylinn Ince. “They probably just think that they have abandoned their followers; there is just a lot of shame on them because everywhere they walk everyone knows it.”

    Having your mom shove a camera in your face one minute and then having to share secrets with her the next does not provide a stable environment to have a happy family relationship.  None of the families have come out to say how they spend family time before or after family vlogging.

   “I think the kids are going to move out and hate their parents for the rest of their lives,”  says freshman Courtney Farell.

    When the children are first put out into social media, sometimes starting from when they were in the womb, their digital footprints began. When they grow up, they can find videos of themselves being born, taking their first steps, and growing up in front of the public’s eye; yet they didn’t have the chance to stop that.

   “I think that people have not gone to those lengths of child exploitation,” Collins said, “because it’s hard to decipher if they are putting their child in danger because it is the mother and their father