Family vlogging became a YouTube craze over a decade and a half ago when the “Shaytards” began posting videos surrounding their children’s activities. Their YouTube description claims, “If life’s worth living then it’s worth recording.” This mentality of many family vloggers is disheartening.
Many of these channels post videos that grossly violate their children’s privacy. A popular family vlogging channel, the “Tannerites,” is guilty of this. Overall, across all of their channels, they have gained over 12.7 million subscribers. Many of their videos broadcast intimate details of their children’s lives.
In a video posted on “Yawi Vlogs By Tannerites” page titled “Becoming a WOMAN!,” Savannah, one of their seven children, is seen hugging her mother, who makes a disgusted face and smells her daughter’s armpit. After this, she asks, “Did you put deodorant on today?” Immediately, Savannah appears embarrassed and begins to explain why she didn’t have any on. Her parents continue to berate her for almost two minutes of the 10-minute video. Her father even says, “You have hairy armpits,” in a mocking tone. Even going so far as to make her show her armpits on camera. That torment would be unbearable regardless, but it being broadcast to tens of thousands of people is incredibly saddening. This type of embarrassing moment online could severely affect the mental health of a child.
In another video featuring Savannah, “I Have Something To Tell You!,” she reveals to her mother that she got her first period. But she isn’t just revealing it to her mother: she is revealing it to the 2.5 million people who viewed that video. A period is a very intimate thing. It is a huge milestone in a girl’s life. Broadcasting it online is extremely unwise and could once again be damaging to a child’s mental health.
This is not the only example of them using their children’s periods to gain views; they do the same thing in their video, “Became A Woman While Parents GONE!!” Her parents are fully aware of this, they are aware that videos with covers that say things like “Mom….. I Have Something To Tell You!” and “Birds and Bees,” attract views. Their children’s privacy and happiness are worth more than the money they’re making from those videos.
This is not the only exploitative style of video they post. The “Yawi Vlogs By Tannerites” channel posts insane amounts of videos about their children’s injuries, illnesses, and even diseases. Although they may be clickbait or untrue, they are constantly being posted. I scrolled through every single video posted on the “Yawi Vlogs By Tannerites” channel, and I counted over 250 videos with covers and titles implying one of their children had an injury or illness. That is over 10% of their 2.5K videos.
There are two videos dedicated to their son, Azbury’s, concussion. Instead of focusing on taking Azbury to the emergency room and making him feel comfortable while he’s there, they video him on the way to the hospital and while he’s in bed getting tested. The first video about Azbury’s concussion had over 20.7 million views, making it their third most viewed video on their channel. The second video also had mass viewership with over 1.4 million views.
The majority of their most viewed videos are about their children’s injuries or illnesses. This pattern of posting their children’s injuries for views is vile. They should be caring for their children as opposed to pulling out the camera when their child gets hurt or becomes ill.
Another of their most popular videos is titled “Saying Goodbye Till We Meet Again! Rest In Peace, Grandma!” with 9.9 million views. This video documents the children’s grandmother’s funeral. Again, they have very poor priorities. They continue to exploit everyone in their lives without any wariness. Before this video, they informed their children of their grandmother’s death on video, “She Passed Away Today.” They didn’t care enough to thoughtfully tell their children about their grandmother’s death. They have many young children who need to be informed about death carefully. Recording that event and broadcasting it to 646K viewers is appalling. It takes away the severity and seriousness of death, as if this is just another vlog at Disney World.
The Tannerites are associated with an infamous family vlogging channel, the “8 Passengers.” Chad Franke, one of the sons on the channel, was featured in many of the Tannerites’ videos. In one video titled “BOYFRIEND Buys My BACK TO SCHOOL OUTFIT!!” Daniell, one of the Tannerites daughters, goes around a clothing store with her boyfriend Chad and both of their mothers. Ruby Franke is Chad’s mother.
On February 20, 2024, Ruby Franke was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for four counts of aggravated child abuse. Ruby created her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” in 2015. Initially, her YouTube channel documented the life of her husband, Kevin Franke, and their six children.
Her channel amassed over 2 million subscribers and 1 billion views. At its peak, the channel earned Ruby over $100,000 monthly. But when Ruby casually spoke about making her son, Chad, sleep on a beanbag for seven months as a punishment for being expelled, people began to notice her borderline negligent form of parenting. This event was not what prompted the arrest: sadly, Ruby abused her two youngest children.
The “8 passengers” channel was deleted in 2021, but before the deletion, they too posted similar exploitative videos.
We watch other people’s lives as if they’re on a reality TV show, but the things that happen in their lives affect them. This isn’t entirely the fault of the family vloggers. Yes, they are posting private details of their children’s lives, but we are the ones paying their salary. If we didn’t watch these videos, family vloggers wouldn’t be making them.
Many states have created laws to protect the children of family vloggers from financial exploitation.
According to CNN, Illinois was the first state to sign a bill protecting the kids of family vloggers. Beginning on July 1, 2024, parents who feature children in their videos have to put aside a percentage of their funds, based on how much of the video they were in. If the child was in 100% of the video, they must get 50% of the revenue. But, this law only applies if the child or children are featured in over 30% of the videos for 12 months.
California, Minnesota, and Utah signed similar laws after Illinois.
