Annotated Bibliography
Emily Gustafson
TA Katherine Boyle
Writing and Rhetoric
26 February 2022
Annotated Bibliography
Brockes, Emma. “Parents Are Exploiting Their Children on YouTube for Fame and Easy Money; A Mother Was Arrested This Week for Allegedly Abusing Her Kids for ‘Hilarious’ Videos. Why Are People Watching This Stuff?” The Guardian (London) , 22 Mar. 2019, advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5VPJ-6FX1-F021-635B-00000-00&context=1516831.
In this article Emma Brockes, an author and mother not only gives her own feelings towards family vlogging, but talks about some of the abuse cases from a mother’s point of view. Brockes mentions various families online who have been caught abusing their children for the sake of the vlog. For example she mentions the family channel “Fantastic Adventures”, and how the Arizona mother behind the camera Machelle Hobson was arrested after it was revealed to local authorities her kids were pepper sprayed and locked in cupboards when they wouldn’t say their lines correctly. She also briefly mentions the channel DaddyOFive, who recently had two of their five children removed from their home after viewers were concerned by their multiple “prank videos” that featured them screaming in their distressed child’s face.
This article clearly stands against children being put in the spotlight. Even though this article doesn’t really express any ideas regarding the opposing side, this was expected because the author is a mother herself. The author’s strengths are that she clearly states her evidence that there is an issue with these online family channels and brings up multiple examples of such. She proposes that there are definitely regulatory issues on the platform when it comes to exploitation and that exposure to the internet at such a young age will only lead to self-consciousness. The only weakness I noticed however is that this article hardly touches base on the opposing side. I am using this article because even though I am very passionate about this topic, I myself am not a mother. This article will represent the “concerned parents” side of the argument and will be good for expressing the emotions that side feels.
Ellis, Emma Gray. “‘People Watch Stuff That’s Happy And Good’”.” Wired, Conde Nast Publications, Inc, June 2019, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587170971/ITOF?u=newpaltz&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=32bb7e4f.
In this article, Emma Gray interviews a pretty well known family channel on the platform “HobbyKidsTV” and dives into how far the parents must go in order to protect their children but also their integrity. For example, the author mentions how the family works with a bigger corporation Pocket Watch, but since the kids have a team of publicists it took over two weeks just for her to contact and schedule the interview. Before they met up, they negotiated over which questions can and cannot be asked, not allowing any mention of earnings from AdSense or “negative-leaning stances on internet child stars”. The mother in the interview also mentions how she gave her kids aliases HobbyFrog, HobbyPig, and HobbyBear to protect her kids and to make sure their fans don’t know their first name, last name, and even what state their in. The star’s parents also go as far as to manually monitoring their comment section and deleting any hate so they can continue to protect their fans from predators while also being able to engage with them. Even though the family enjoys creating content together, it is very time consuming for all of them. One strength of this article is that even though the author expresses her own concerns, such as the youngest child of the family HobbyBear having anxiety surrounding his following count at the age of six, she still continues to report on the issue in an unbiased way.
This article addresses multiple perspectives, the young stars, the parents of said young stars, and her own two cents here and there. This source will aid me in my bigger research because it gives me perspective as to how the kids and parents feel about being an internet star. This article mentions many pros, and will aid me in any information I need in any mentions of the opposing “pro internet star” side in my paper.
Hajjaji, Danya. “YouTube Lets Parents Exploit Their Kids For Clicks; From Puberty-Themed Videos to Divulging Intimate Private Details of Their Lives, YouTube’s Parent Vloggers Are Leaving Their Children Exposed.” Newsweek (Vol. 177, Issue 13), Newsweek LCC, 15 Oct. 2021, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A678991225/ITOF?u=newpaltz&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=aa044b44.
Throughout the article, author Danya Hajjaji brings up several families that have been exposed for exploiting their children for views. One family that goes by Yawi Vlogs on the website recently received major backlash after posting videos such as showing their tween daughter learn how to shave or taking her bra shopping. Their videos would include titles such as “Becoming a Woman! I’m 11 and it FINALLY HAPPENED!”. Another example of this exploitation the author mentions is the 8 Passengers channel, which recently came under fire after the son revealed he got his bedroom taken away for seven months for pranking his brother. The common theme throughout the article is the exploitation and oversharing of parents online.
Hajjiaji makes a point that the kids who are involved in these videos are too young to understand and consent that this content is being put online for millions to see. I am going to be using this article to represent all the examples of exploitation on the platform because there is a heavy amount of evidence stated. The author makes very valid points, stating that under U.S laws parents are deemed the gatekeepers of their child’s information, and with them oversharing they are deemed as “gate openers’ ‘. She also mentions how the normalization of oversharing online may lead to the young viewers following their footsteps and revealing their personal information online. She also goes out of her way to mention that France has already taken the steps to protect their young creators by forcing them to get work permits from an administrative official and also granting the stars the right to erasure without their parents permission. I look to include not only the examples of exploitation but also her valid points in my paper.
Ketteler, Judi. “What It’s Really Like to Be a Kid Star on YouTube: Is Life behind Viral YouTube Videos All It’s Cracked up to Be? Three Families Share Their Stories.” Good Housekeeping (Vol. 269, Issue 2), Hearst Magazines, a Division of the Hearst Corporation, Aug. 2019,
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A594553438/ITOF?u=newpaltz&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d1334cd4.
Judi Ketteler gives an inside look into what it is like to be an online creator. Throughout the article, she accurately represents both sides of the young internet star debate, making sure to note the pros and cons of each. Ketteler interviews three young stars, Jayden Bartels, Jasmine Shao and Tanner Braungardt. In the article she mentions how Youtube has granted all three of them amazing opportunities, such as Bartels being able to save up for college and travel, Shao creating an amazing community of supporters, and Braungardt going as far as being able to purchase a 1.2 million dollar home in LA for his family. She also mentions the struggles of the career choice, such as Braungardt struggling with not making his income and subscriber count his identity and also issues with severe anxiety and depression. Ketteler finishes the article with some pointers to follow if you decide to allow your child to have a youtube channel. I look to include this article in my paper because it clearly states issues that teens face when they are looking to join the platform and make it big.
Lambert, Harper. “WHY KIDFLUENCERS NEED A COOGAN LAW.” Hollywood Reporter (Vol. 425, Issue 47) , Prometheus Global Media LLC, 14 Aug. 2019, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597715892/ITOF?u=newpaltz&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=987e0cb2.
In this article, Harper Lambert briefly explains what the Coogan Law is and why it should be applied to the new generation of digital creators. She explains how the Coogan Law was enacted in 1939 after actor Jackie Coogan found out that his parents blew through all his earnings. This law now requires that at least 15% of a child’s earnings be deposited into a trust account only they can access as a way to protect them from exploitation. Lambert also mentions how California attempted to pass a bill applying some of the Coogan Laws, but the final bill was diluted before it was passed. If a child’s performance is less than an hour a work permit is not mandatory. In Hollywood Coogan accounts and work permits go hand in hand, if there’s no work permit then there’s no need for a trust account. She also states how the fight for protecting young influencers is being personally handled, and how most social media management organizations only agree to work with children who are fully protected by Coogan Accounts.
I look to include this article in my paper because this is everything my project is advocating for. My goal is to ensure that young influencers get the representation and earnings they worked hard for. This article strongly represents what the Coogan Law stands for and all the reasons why it should be applied in the digital age
My process for writing this assignment required many long nights of scouring the Library databases for articles. Since my topic is relatively new and all of these cases are just now starting to come to the surface, it was hard to find sources representing everything I wanted to cover. I have a lot to say about my topic, but I needed the right articles to put exactly what I wanted to say into words. I was unsure as to how to go about writing my summaries, and feel as though the one weakness throughout my bibliography is the way I included way too much information in my summary portion. My strength however is my time management, because I made sure to look for the articles first and then spread out the time I typed up every assignment. Overall, I really enjoyed falling down the rabbit hole of this topic once again and had fun playing detective looking for my sources.