Child "Influencers" (Exploitation)

Nancykitt said:
Re. Homeschooling-
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Nancykitt said:
The other extreme is so-called ‘homeschooling’ where parents and children effectively do nothing at all beyond very basic skills (and sometimes not even this). It is pretty much an unregulated area in the UK and I’ve come across some real horror stories. Lots of schools have serious problems but home ed is not necessarily any better and can be worse.
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This is exactly what step son and his wife are doing. (Actually, his wife is, as SS does as he's told). DH has had to step away.as he cannot behave himself verbally any more.
4 children, all been home schooled since March 2020, currently aged 13, 12, 8 and 6.
All are very knowledgeable about the earth being flat.... know nothing about languages, sciences, cannot construct a sentence, written skills are deplorable, I could go on....
Not one has had any vaccs in last 8 years, so the 2 younger ones haven't had any.
The wife is doing the schooling, which consists of reading books to them and nature walks. The children aren't permitted to mingle with others, both parents have one, yes one GCSE between them.
 
To use *a well-known one* as an example, as she's the one I've heard of most - I feel incredibly sorry for her. I don't think she has an amazing life, nor, sadly, will have an amazing future - her childhood has not set her up for a contented adulthood. She has been "on show" for most of her life. She lives in a lovely house with stables, yes, but that's the result of her being paraded in public for so many years. Having the horses at home means that she isn't able to mingle with her peers at the stables, and perhaps more concerningly, hasn't got an experienced eye on hand to advise on the management of her ponies. She goes to a show and is treated as a celebrity, doing meet and greets for (presumably) payments. She has ponies produced for her, some of which were handed over at a show for her to jump on for the class. By all accounts she's a lovely little rider, but she hasn't had the opportunity to broaden her experience by working with young/"naughty"/green ponies. She gets gifted insane amounts of clothing/equipment etc from her sponsors, so has learnt that products are easily gained and easily disposed of. I still remember what I bought with my first pay packet - my own stereo, which I had wanted for years - and the sense of achievement (that I still feel) in that was huge. How is she supposed to value things when she has so much given to her?

I believe her and her brother are also filmed for hours on Christmas Day, at home opening their presents, which is then uploaded for the public to view. At least with traditional child celebrities such as the Olsen twins mentioned above, they had their home life to themselves. And yes, she may have friends, but how many are there for the likes and shares, hoping that some of the celebrity will go their way if they appear in a video too? Are they friends or co-stars?

Yes, she has much that some would envy - material things, opportunities, fame. But at what cost? Very little in her life appears to be "normal". Whilst "normal" is not necessarily best, speaking as someone who grew up never feeling "normal", it was all I ever wanted.
 
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JenJ said:
To use Harlow as an example, as she's the one I've heard of most - I feel incredibly sorry for her. I don't think she has an amazing life, nor, sadly, will have an amazing future - her childhood has not set her up for a contented adulthood. She has been "on show" for most of her life. She lives in a lovely house with stables, yes, but that's the result of her being paraded in public for so many years. Having the horses at home means that she isn't able to mingle with her peers at the stables, and perhaps more concerningly, hasn't got an experienced eye on hand to advise on the management of her ponies. She goes to a show and is treated as a celebrity, doing meet and greets for (presumably) payments. She has ponies produced for her, some of which were handed over at a show for her to jump on for the class. By all accounts she's a lovely little rider, but she hasn't had the opportunity to broaden her experience by working with young/"naughty"/green ponies. She gets gifted insane amounts of clothing/equipment etc from her sponsors, so has learnt that products are easily gained and easily disposed of. I still remember what I bought with my first pay packet - my own stereo, which I had wanted for years - and the sense of achievement (that I still feel) in that was huge. How is she supposed to value things when she has so much given to her?

I believe her and her brother are also filmed for hours on Christmas Day, at home opening their presents, which is then uploaded for the public to view. At least with traditional child celebrities such as the Olsen twins mentioned above, they had their home life to themselves. And yes, she may have friends, but how many are there for the likes and shares, hoping that some of the celebrity will go their way if they appear in a video too? Are they friends or co-stars?

Yes, Harlow has much that some would envy - material things, opportunities, fame. But at what cost? Very little in her life appears to be "normal". Whilst "normal" is not necessarily best, speaking as someone who grew up never feeling "normal", it was all I ever wanted.
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The only thing I disagree with is the not having had experience bringing on a young, green pony as she has Cookie who is both and although they sent him to a producer before, he didn’t get on well so he’s at him now and she is doing it herself which is harder tbh as he isn’t being started from scratch and already has some issues. From what I’ve seen, Harlow does love her ponies and is very hardworking. Yes, she is also very lucky and time will tell what the affects of being in the limelight at such a young age will have but she’s also had some incredible experiences that a lot of children wouldn’t get to have (eg they are currently all on safari)
 
spotty_pony2 said:
The only thing I disagree with is the not having had experience bringing on a young, green pony as she has Cookie who is both and although they sent him to a producer before, he didn’t get on well so he’s at him now and she is doing it herself which is harder tbh as he isn’t being started from scratch and already has some issues. From what I’ve seen, Harlow does love her ponies and is very hardworking. Yes, she is also very lucky and time will tell what the affects of being in the limelight at such a young age will have but she’s also had some incredible experiences that a lot of children wouldn’t get to have (eg they are currently all on safari)
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Ah, correction welcomed - I don't follow her, and a lot of what I said is picked up from general conversations.

I agree she does seem to genuinely love the ponies, so hopefully at the end of the day, after spending hours filming/meeting her public, she can pop out of her back door, walk a few steps to see her ponies and give them a goodnight cuddle, and in that moment, it may all seem worth it ❤️
 
Going on safari with your mum and little brother or spending half term at the farm with your mates having fun. I know what I’d have picked at that age! Then again, I find the whole safari thing as boring as hell.

Weekends and school holidays at the farm with my friends was the highlight of my life at the time. There are definitely advantages to growing up on a livery yard with all your pals.
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
Would just point out to be mindful about commenting specifically on the children involved by name.

Even the positive/nice comments because the whole issue is that they shouldn't be 'available' for any of us to be making any kind of comment about. It's weird that any of us know anything about them.
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Noted, guilty, edited name out. I agree with you, even if I did the opposite!
 
The only reason that anyone is aware of these children is because their parents have decided to monetise their childhood and that multiple brands have decided to cash in. As far as I’m aware most of the children concerned are perfectly fine riders but in that respect they’re no different to hundreds if not thousands of children up and down the country about whom - rightly - random unrelated adults know nothing. Whether or not they love their ponies/enjoy the perks/are doing a good ‘job’ is all completely irrelevant - none of them is old enough to give informed consent to having so many aspects of their lives on public display. The parents are obviously to blame but the companies using these children for marketing are even worse imo.
 
Just had on my timeline come up a with a Meet and Greet with a very young showjumping person at Three Counties spring show. Says she has 1.3 million followers
 
Someone on my fb is a wannabe "influencer"

Posts loads of pouty photos with "motivational messages" but also trying to use her child for views

There's a video of said child tipping up at the skate park and shes laughing at the number of views she's got for that video. So want to comment and say would you be so delighted by all those views if some of the viewers weren't the sort of people youd want to have access to your child (cant think all the hundreds of thousands will be entirely innocent)

Said child is also clearly put on a pedestal, and is home schooled, she put a post about how she doesnt want him to have to conform or something similar but i cant blinking find it.

There was a video of them on a shuttle bus (we get "treated" to how many holidays they get to go on) and hes climbing up one of the poles. There were other people on the bus. Do you think she told him to get down, its not safe and to be respectful of other people? Oh no of course not, we get a video of him doing it, and proudly exclaiming he did it 9 times!!!

These people really dont live in the real world, I follow very few "influencers" but do watch the videos of a themepark you tube couple, as while I hate rollercoasters I like watching others go on them, and getting to see some of the placed they go is interesting

Anyway theyre at Disney land atm, and hes harping on about how good it is they have passes now, and how you only need to go twice to make it worthwhile. They've lost touch with their audience, some people cant afford to go at all, never mind once let alone twice

Again, theyre put on a pedestal by some of the parks, recently they stayed at a GORGEOUS safari lodge in the UK, at a park. I looked it up as thought i wouldn't mind a bit of that. Yep £400 plus a night a ha er no cant afford even close to that! It then turns out they were gifted the stay!!! He even implied theyd never have stayed there if it wasn't gifted and theyd had to pay for it. I couldn't resist commenting to say while I understand its free advertising for the park, its sickening how influencers are gifted stuff like that when working families cant afford it. Comment was deleted 🙃

All these channels have cult followers who believe they can do no wrong and defend them to the end
 
We shouldn't know she is on safari but clearly the family wants everyone to know this otherwise we wouldn't. I don't even follow her and now I know she's on safari due discussion on an unrelated forum.

Parents should really pay attention to how far making money from displaying your child on social media can reach.
 
Karma, the wannabe influencer on the video posted of her child tipping up at the skate park is getting absolutely HAMMERED in the comments, including several saying how hes being used for views when he cant consent (i admit to liking some of them!)
 
Crazy_cat_lady said:
These people really dont live in the real world
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Crazy_cat_lady said:
They've lost touch with their audience, some people cant afford to go at all, never mind once let alone twice
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This is a good point…I know some people who think that the equestrian child influencers are ‘inspirational’ to other children but that’s not always the case. I’ve come across pony-mad kids who are very envious to the point of being resentful because they can’t afford weekly rides/lessons, let alone their own pony, let alone a string of ponies. Of course this has always been the case and there’s nothing that can really be done about it, but there’s no doubt that these posts about success and endless freebies don’t always land as well as people might think. (And I don’t mind admitting that, as a child, I would have hated these influencers because I wanted a pony with every fibre of my being and I didn’t think it was fair that other families could afford one and mine couldn’t!). The hostile and cruel attitudes of some children is probably another reason why the influencers’ parents opt for home schooling.
So I do wonder what sort of people make up the majority of the followers. Obviously there will be some pony-mad kids, but I think that there will probably be some adults who get enjoyment from following the children’s lives - and perhaps there’s a fine line between this being perfectly OK and a bit worrying.
 
scats said:
Going on safari with your mum and little brother or spending half term at the farm with your mates having fun. I know what I’d have picked at that age! Then again, I find the whole safari thing as boring as hell.

Weekends and school holidays at the farm with my friends was the highlight of my life at the time. There are definitely advantages to growing up on a livery yard with all your pals.
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Whereas I loved my family holidays, and never felt that I missed anything having ponies on a private yard. I had friends around often, hacked out with friends, went on pony camps and pony club things with friends.

What you grow up with is very much your norm, I don't think these children are being deprived just because they aren't having the same experiences as some other children.

But I do still love being in the bush in Africa, in the middle of nowhere, looking for interesting animals.
 
So the skateboarding spill child mentioned up thread? Another account (presumably with permission) has used the video on their page

So sending him out to an even wider audience

All while she claims they aren't influencers

Shes also pinned the video in question 🙄

All while claiming it was a video for family... if it was that, youd have posted it on a private account or sent it in a WhatsApp.
 
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