Michael Martin or DaddyOFive was a Youtuber who lost his channel and lost custody of at least one child due to child  abuse. He had been filming his child acting in ways he thought was funny and posting them online. There are multiple channels, known as family vlogs, like this one. Some have less controversy than others. Over 360.7 million people view family vlogs.  

Family vlogging channels should not exist without more rules or regulations. 

In one instance of abuse, Martin sprayed disappearing ink on the floor of his son Cody’s room and then proceeded to shout at his son for something he didn’t do. This brought his son to tears. His father did nothing to comfort his son. All he did was give a cold icy feeling. In one clip, Cody asks his father to turn off the camera. His father told him that he wouldn’t do that because he wanted the Youtube views. He said all this in his Youtube videos. An essay from Christ University describes Martin telling his children to steal his daughter’s toys and hit her with them. This video got 902,000 views.

This is only one of many channels that does “pranks” like this, but they’re not funny. They’re about trying to make money. Youtube started monetizing at 4,000 subscribers. Each 1,000 views equals $3-$5 in Youtube revenue. With DaddyOFive getting 902,000 views on that video, it made a lot of money. Some of the most popular family vlogging channels have over a million subscribers, some of them around 60,000 a year. People will do a lot to get that kind of money.

The Slyfox family dating controversy was when the Slyfox family collaborated with the Johnson Family and put a kindergartener in a dating relationship with a preschooler. Obviously, this is a bad idea simply because kids aren’t a game to be used to milk views on Youtube for money. It is forcing the children to do what they want to do for profit. A child shouldn’t have to do what he or she doesn’t want to do unless it is breaking an essential parental rule. These are toddlers not actors.

There is a difference between children of parents who run these vlogs and child actors. Child actors have more protection than children who are used as cash cows on the internet. The Department of Labor laws say children can’t be filmed for more than 40 hours a week, and depending on what state they are in, they have to have a permit. 

The best thing to end these troubles is to put more laws  in place that protect these children, laws like the ones used for Hollywood, plus better laws that protect the children from parents like DaddyOFive. Additionally, people should just watch other things to pass the time without supporting harm to children