No matter how hard I try to avoid them, no matter how many times I click “disinterested” again and again on a TikTok or Instagram Reel, they always come back to haunt me.

Taking the form of your typical family of four, five or 12, these influencers film anything from Mr. Beast-esque 24-hour challenges to uncomfortably personal day-in-the-life videos. Watching them, I always felt something was off. The artificial expressions and over-the-top editing failed to conceal the mistreatment of children that takes place behind the camera, with the parents often as the culprits.

And it makes sense why children would be at the forefront of these extreme family channels. YouTube videos featuring children get three times the amount of views compared to videos without children. This, however, is very concerning.

Although this could just be new parents eagerly searching for family-related content, it’s not impossible that people who should definitely not be on the internet take up some of those views as well. Either way, this leads some parent content creators to see this as an opportunity to turn their children into money-making machines with sweet, sweet potential to go viral.

There have been many cases of family channels getting exposed for their exploitation: the most recent and infamous example being 8 Passengers.

Ruby Franke, the owner of the channel which showcased life with her six kids, was charged with four counts of child abuse in 2023. For some, the sentencing was not surprising due to her controversial parenting-style that helped sky-rocket her to fame in 2015. One video showed Franke threatening her sons that they would “lose the privilege to eat dinner” if they didn’t stop play-fighting. Another reveals that her teenager had spent seven months sleeping on a beanbag, due to having his bedroom revoked after playing a prank on his siblings.

Her abusive parenting was finally brought to life when one of her youngest sons, kept captive and malnourished in her basement as a form of punishment, escaped and got the attention of their nearby neighbors for help.

All of this was caused due to Franke’s desire for fame and fortune. She saw that her harmful practices gained the most views and most money, and her children suffered at the hands of its exploitation and abuse. Not only did it take almost a decade for Franke to finally get repercussions, many fledgling parents were likely influenced by her parenting tactics during that time to use on their own families, putting more children at risk.

To the casual TikTok peruser or YouTube fiend, family video content seems relatively harmless. In some cases, it is. Maybe a family simply wants to share cool experiences with the world and cherish the memories made with their children. However, more often than not, there’s a considerable amount of mistreatment and morally-questionable aspects behind the scenes that would raise eyebrows if shown to the public.

It can be easy to forget that every piece of content on the internet is purposeful. Content creators only show you what they want you to see; any harmful behavior can seem completely untraceable if they’re smart about it. No one sees the amount of unused takes on a bottle-flipping video where young siblings are allowed to hit each other, hard, when someone’s bottle doesn’t land on its base.

But what about the content parents are willing to show on the internet? What do we do when someone shamelessly films dumping dangerous amounts of laxatives into ice cream to feed to their unsuspecting children, who then cry and double over in pain moments later? If that is the content people are showing online, what happens behind closed doors?

On topics such as these, it’s important to break the immersion of an aesthetic, internet fantasy dreamland we’re all used to flocking to. We see countless videos of big, happy families living the perfect life with no issues at all, which is completely unrealistic.

My advice? Click off.

I’m not saying to not enjoy internet content or indulge in it; you can pry my lengthy Youtube video essays and book reviews out of my cold, dead hands, thank you. But it’s important to be mindful of content you see, especially when it comes to more personal content like family vlogs. It’s best not to give them more support and money than they already have and indulge in content that isn’t harmful.