The Child Influencers

Child Influencers

Social media is proliferating with influencers, but despite their prevalence and the extensive body of scholarship, there is no comprehensive book that frames the historical and contemporary phenomenon of child influencers. Drawing on original empirical ethnographic fieldwork and case studies from Asia Pacific and beyond, and spanning various digital platforms, this book looks at the emergence of child influencers and online fame more generally. Crystal Abidin, a pioneering scholar in this field, discusses key historical milestones, scandals, and the social and cultural contexts that have led to ordinary children becoming famous online, and how changing public discourse has resulted in important pivots in the ways we perceive them. The book addresses and challenges some of the moral panics against the visibility of children on social media and gives voice and agency to the children, their parents and guardians, and the agents and managers who have been striving to improve the child influencer market through their everyday practices and community norms. Child Influencers is illuminating reading for anyone who wants to understand the phenomena of children and online fame, and why they have proliferated so quickly in society.

The Child Influencers

Like, Follow, Subscribe

A searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame, Like, Follow, Subscribe is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the costs of internet fame, and the ethics of online content. What is it like to grow up with a camera in your face 24/7? To have your childhood moments sold as “content” to millions online? What happens when someone who works in a largely unregulated multi-billion-dollar industry sells away their childhood and has no financial safety net as an adult? What does it feel like to have your private moments—your medical diagnoses, your first period, your first break up, your tantrums, potty-training, and breastfeeding-weaning—broadcast to an audience of millions? Like, Follow, Subscribe shines a spotlight on the deeply troubling world of the child influencer industry. Journalist Fortesa Latifi dives into the lives of children whose parents mine their everyday activities for monetizable content, exposing issues like privacy violations, financial abuse, and the absence of child labor protections. Through expert interviews with psychologists, labor scientists, and even former child influencers and family vloggers, she uncovers the pressures, trauma, and consequences for children thrust into the spotlight. This timely and eye-opening book doesn’t just reveal the harm of toxic social media culture: it also provides a roadmap to better regulating influencer families, safeguarding children, and questioning the role of audiences in perpetuating these cycles of exploitation.