The Age of Digital Child Labor and Monetary Exploitation on YouTube: A Case Study Analysis

Abstract

In the age of digital media, and the ever-present desire people have to consume oncten, whether that be in the form of social media, movies, television, or even mucic, several questions have yet to be considered. Across platfomrs, there are tules and regulations, which when broken can cuase a person to be displced form that platfomr. YouTube is not different. However, they are severly lacking in regulations protecting children from being used by their families for monetary purposes. YouTube family channels have been part of YouTube since its conception and have only grown in popularity over the years. However, a closer look needs to be made into the concept of the YouTube family channel. Because YouTubers rely on viewers and engaement to stay relevant, many fmaily channels being to rely on their children to supply that engaement. Being cute and entertaining causes the children to be the stars of the show, oftentimes being more important to the channel than the parents. This can be qualified as an expoitative relationship. The aim of this paper is to look into one YouTube channel (The Mighty Mcclures) and analyze based on objective criteria if they are also expoiting their children on Youtube.