[HN Gopher] The First Social-Media Babies Are Growing Up-and The...
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       The First Social-Media Babies Are Growing Up-and They're Horrified
        
       Author : paulpauper
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2023-05-27 19:05 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theatlantic.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theatlantic.com)
        
       | MandieD wrote:
       | When I'm not sure about something to do with my now-toddler, I
       | ask myself: what would 15- and 30-year-old (insert kid's name
       | here) want me to have done right now?
       | 
       | Make him wear his detested glasses so he doesn't develop a lazy
       | eye? Yes!
       | 
       | Record and post him having a breakdown over not getting to play
       | in the sink as long as he thinks he should have? No!
        
         | spondylosaurus wrote:
         | That sounds like a pretty foolproof way to approach it. In
         | those specific examples, too, one is clearly for his benefit
         | (unless he _wants_ to grow up with a lazy eye...) and the other
         | would solely be for yours.
         | 
         | Not that I think parents should or need to be faultless perfect
         | martyrs with no needs of their own, but social media clout
         | means nothing to a two-year-old and is 100% for parents'
         | gratification.
        
       | mikewarot wrote:
       | I only talk about Sproutlet in mostly generic terms in public...
       | on facebook when I do show photos, etc... it's to a limited
       | distribution, and not the whole world
       | 
       | I think I've taken a reasonable approach to the management of the
       | 10,000+ photos/videos, of which maybe 20? have made it into the
       | world.
        
         | kevviiinn wrote:
         | Its still getting shared with Facebook. Are you okay with
         | having your child's photos being used for training facial
         | recognition software? Is your child okay with it?
        
           | flangola7 wrote:
           | Facebook purged all their face recognition data a few years
           | ago. It's not even an available feature now.
        
           | mikewarot wrote:
           | It's unavoidable in US society these days. I'm sure that
           | tagging has happened on photos from other children in
           | classes, parties, etc.
           | 
           | Am I ok with it? I accept the things I cannot change.
        
             | elbigbad wrote:
             | Of course it's not. Neither of my children's faces have
             | ever appeared on social media. It just requires a little
             | discipline on the parents part, which seems to be in short
             | supply these days.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | bitlax wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/XISkS
        
         | stevespang wrote:
         | [dead]
        
       | ThrowawayTestr wrote:
       | Looking forward to the first lawsuits over this stuff.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | saiya-jin wrote:
       | Well, if you have idiotic parents who are either greedy,
       | emotionally crippled or compensating something broken in their
       | lives to stream their lives from A to Z, you are in a world of
       | pain and this is one way it can manifest.
       | 
       | I have no understanding for such folks, it may be considered
       | criminal in future or not, but its highly amoral anytime.
        
         | geek_at wrote:
         | An acquaintance of mine started a small "mommy" blog when she
         | had her first baby and it grew so fast she was getting
         | sponsorship deals. She got another kid after that and another
         | .. and 7 more. She has now 10 kids and makes many hundred
         | thousand euros a year with sponsorship deals.
         | 
         | She even monetized her kids illnesses as one has ADD, another
         | has autism and she made videos with them about going to doctors
         | and even filming inside the offices and clinics.
         | 
         | Her oldest is now 14 and refuses to go on camera anymore and
         | some of the smaller kids got teased and bullied in school.
         | 
         | She then started to monetize herself more, had her nose, chin,
         | lips and boobs surgically altered.
         | 
         | Truly sad to see her develop in a way that seems unhealthy for
         | her kids and her own psyche (as she's also increasingly
         | mentioning burnout and depression)
        
           | pengaru wrote:
           | That does seem to paint a relatively clear "child
           | exploitation" picture.
           | 
           | Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't fall under child labor laws.
        
           | kevviiinn wrote:
           | There are a ton of YouTube channels like that, where parents
           | exploit their children for view and sponsorships. Its
           | horrible
        
             | engineer_22 wrote:
             | Yep, and kids love watching it
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | My sister engaged in casual oversharing of her son's early life
       | on Facebook. Nothing too egregious, just lots of baby/toddler
       | photos and cute widdle nicknames in the comments and stuff.
       | 
       | I told her, "You do realize that he's going to grow up to be a
       | teenager, then an adult, and resent you for life because
       | everybody he knows saw you call him your 'little bean', right?"
       | 
       | After that the cutesiness tapered off.
        
         | apelapan wrote:
         | Unless something else is going on or the baby ends up mentally
         | ill as an adult, it will not resent your sister for calling it
         | 'little bean' in public and posting pictures of it Wadling
         | about in diapers.
         | 
         | The baby might resent these things as a teenager, but who
         | cares? Good luck organizing your own parenthood in a teenager-
         | resentment-safe manner.
        
         | kevinventullo wrote:
         | Are modern teenagers really looking up old Facebook posts from
         | their peers' moms to mock them for some nickname they had
         | before they could speak? That seems like such a reach. If
         | anything, that type of investigation would get the investigator
         | labeled as a weirdo.
        
         | AlexandrB wrote:
         | Geez, that's very harsh. My mom still calls me all kinds of pet
         | names, but I don't resent her for it (anymore). I guess I did
         | as a teenager, but teenagers are generally idiots. An adult who
         | resents his parents for having pet names for him/her as a
         | toddler has some other issues to work through I think.
        
       | Wiki39366 wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | BrandoElFollito wrote:
         | 15% in France where this is illegal but tolerated because
         | religion
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | If you had been raised by a society (and parents) that taught you
       | that caring about privacy was elitist, and that you haven't
       | really been somewhere or done something unless you have a selfie
       | of you being there or doing it, you'd want to protect your
       | children as much as you could from the predators that profited
       | from you.
       | 
       | Every level of government and business is actively trying to
       | break down or remove your boundaries through surveillance and
       | recordkeeping, and to publicly mock you as some sort of stalinist
       | luddite nazi spy for complaining about it.
        
       | EA-3167 wrote:
       | In a world which has pageant moms, I don't see how this can
       | surprise anyone, it's just a new expression of an old illness.
        
         | JieJie wrote:
         | I think of all the childhood actors who struggled ever after
         | with the fame that many of them never got to personally
         | experience, but instead, inherited from their parents. For
         | instance, the Nevermind baby. [0]
         | 
         | There are probably going to be a lot more Brittney Spears' in
         | humanity's future.
         | 
         | [0]https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58327844
        
           | Karellen wrote:
           | Also, Wil Wheatons
           | 
           | https://wilwheaton.net/2022/05/yes-i-was-forced-to-be-a-
           | chil...
        
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       (page generated 2023-05-27 23:01 UTC)