Amal Muhammad Amin
In the era of social media and digital openness, the lives of many became public, including the lives of children. Unfortunately, it is noticed that some parents are taking advantage of their children to achieve material gains or to obtain wide fame at the expense of the childhood of their children and their rights. This disturbing phenomenon requires standing at it and contemplates its psychological, social, and legal dimensions. Without a doubt, the exploitation of children to achieve gains and fame is a kind of invisible attack, but it is no less dangerous than any other form of abuse. If childhood protection is a collective responsibility that starts from the family, it extends to society and the state. Instead of using the child as a means of fame, he must be supported to build his personality in a healthy and sound manner, to become a conscious individual able to achieve success with his decision and his choice, not by the decisions of others.
The exploitation of children appears in multiple ways, perhaps the most prominent of them:
Family YouTube channels: Parents photograph their children in daily or representative situations with the aim of attracting followers and increasing views, which generates large profits from advertisements.
Excessive review of private children’s lives: such as photographing them in crying, illness, or even punishment, which violates their privacy and exposes them to embarrassment and bullying.
Working in advertisements and technical field without real protection: children are pushed to work in front of the cameras for hours sometimes, without regard to their psychological or age interest.
There are also many forms of exploitation in daily life, and several real models can be monitored:
1. Family channels on YouTube
Some families have turned into “digital brands”, where the channels depend on the child’s diaries, feelings and spontaneous or artificial stances, with the aim of profit from advertisements, regardless of the impact of this on the child psychologically and socially.
2. Spreading sensitive or embarrassing moments
Many parents depict their children in crying situations, punishment, or shame, and publish these scenes via the Internet to attract the interaction, which exposes the child to bullying or insulting later.
3. The exploitation of children in commercials
Some children are forced to photograph the advertising content constantly, and they are used as promotional means of various products on Instagram or Tech Tok, which deprives them of comfort and play.
4. Exposing family differences on public
In some cases, children are used as a pressure card in divorce issues or marital disputes, as their personal lives are publicly published to generate followers of followers.
5. Pressure to participate in competitions or media appearances
Some children are exposed to severe family pressure to participate in technical competitions or television programs in order to enhance the fame of the family, even if they are not psychologically or emotionally prepared for that.
6. The phenomenon of “open houses”
Some families display the full details of daily life – waking up to sleep – almost permanently, which robs the child his privacy and comfort and turns him into a “entertainment product”.
Parents’ motives
The intentions may be good on the surface, such as the desire to document the beautiful moments or to secure the future of the child financially. But the reality reveals that fame and rapid profit are the two main motives, as the child turns into a “marketing tool” that generates income for parents, even if it is at the expense of his psychological comfort or natural growth.
Psychological and social effects on children
Lack of privacy: The child loses his privacy at an early age, which may affect the growth of his personality and independence.
Psychological pressure: The child is forced to act in a certain way or repeat acting scenes that may be exhausted.
Early fame: The imposed fame may lead to subsequent psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety, or even social isolation.
Weak awareness of the identity: When the child introduces himself through his “virtual personality”, he may suffer from an identity struggle in later stages.
That such moral and legal abuses require deterrence, and parents must realize that children are not a special property in which they are active. The child’s interest must be above all considerations, and to give him the full space to grow and live his childhood freely without exploitation. The legislative authorities must intervene by setting clear laws criminalizing the exploitation of children in the media or commercially without controls, with the need to monitor social media platforms for these abuses.
