Chapter 6 - Babies!
It’s time to discuss
point-out-worthy topics seen in vlogs in Youtube-land. Examples will be
discussed through the themes of digital citizenship and privacy.
Digital Citizenship is mainly about participating in on-line platforms. It includes protection, being careful about posting content and on-line behaviour.
The first channel I want to discuss is Stellig, a youtube channel on which couple Darcy and Thomas post daily vlogs. A few months ago, Darcy gave birth to twins, and the baby girls have been appearing in every vlog from that day. The girls were born prematurely, so they spent several weeks in hospital, an emotional and personal experience which the couple shared with their audience. They have been at home for quite a while now though. Thomas and Darcy show things such as feeding time, napping, walks and giving the girls a bath.
It's quite an interesting case, as these baby girls cannot say anything against their parents posting their lives on YouTube, simply because they are too young to even know what's going on. I am not a parent (phew), but I don't think it is the best idea to post such imagery and details of the children online. It makes me wonder what happens to copyright, obviously the parents 'own' the child, but the footage is freely available to their fans and anyone who has access to YouTube. This example reminded me of the success kid meme story, whose mum posted a picture of her son which went viral. And then what happened?
I wonder what happens when the girls grow up and are unhappy about the fact that their parents have posted their whole childhood online, considering relatively little privacy. I suppose the parents have a say about their children for as long as they are under aged. However, posting personal content like this is not the most sensible approach to privacy and to being mindful about posting content. Maybe it's better to stick with the good old baby albums. Also, when the girls are older, and the Stellig channel is still popular, the girls might get unwanted attention, as they have become famous with the audience of Stellig.
I suppose it is about accepting the fact that this is the 21st century, in which these tools and media are part of everyday life, even if that is family-life. A positive note therefore, can be that other young parents can pick up some advice from these videos. Also, for them these vlogs are nice memories for when the girls are older.
Another channel with babies is 2wmn of which Willemijn became mother of Jelle over a year ago and quite recently gave birth to Gijs. She posted one video explaining the birth of the little fellow without showing any footage, and she never shows the faces of the boys. Willemijn explained clearly that she doesn't show their faces to respect their privacy. Also, her vlogs don't evolve around the children, as the vlogs of Stellig do, but around her own activities. This is quite a different approach to showing children, and I believe this is more mindful and even respectful towards the little ones.
In the middle of these two examples is a story from Jill creator of CrocoJill who is a daily vlogger and used to film the young daughter of her friend when she visited them. At one point her friend decided to respect the girls privacy and it was arranged with Jill to leave the little girl out of her vlogs. I suppose it’s 21st century-appropriate parenting.
Lesson: I suppose the topic of parenting has a very specific audience, however the lesson from this topic that goes for every reader is to be mindful about posting. This is also especially important when others are involved in the footage. I always joke that I’m going to ask for 5 Euro’s whenever I see a stranger taking a picture which captures me as well. I won’t but it’s just an example to always consider other people’s privacy when posting detailed footage such as vlogs of children.
Also check out the Twitter page of this project @IamVlogged
Digital Citizenship is mainly about participating in on-line platforms. It includes protection, being careful about posting content and on-line behaviour.
The first channel I want to discuss is Stellig, a youtube channel on which couple Darcy and Thomas post daily vlogs. A few months ago, Darcy gave birth to twins, and the baby girls have been appearing in every vlog from that day. The girls were born prematurely, so they spent several weeks in hospital, an emotional and personal experience which the couple shared with their audience. They have been at home for quite a while now though. Thomas and Darcy show things such as feeding time, napping, walks and giving the girls a bath.
It's quite an interesting case, as these baby girls cannot say anything against their parents posting their lives on YouTube, simply because they are too young to even know what's going on. I am not a parent (phew), but I don't think it is the best idea to post such imagery and details of the children online. It makes me wonder what happens to copyright, obviously the parents 'own' the child, but the footage is freely available to their fans and anyone who has access to YouTube. This example reminded me of the success kid meme story, whose mum posted a picture of her son which went viral. And then what happened?
Image: YouTube Screenshot
I wonder what happens when the girls grow up and are unhappy about the fact that their parents have posted their whole childhood online, considering relatively little privacy. I suppose the parents have a say about their children for as long as they are under aged. However, posting personal content like this is not the most sensible approach to privacy and to being mindful about posting content. Maybe it's better to stick with the good old baby albums. Also, when the girls are older, and the Stellig channel is still popular, the girls might get unwanted attention, as they have become famous with the audience of Stellig.
I suppose it is about accepting the fact that this is the 21st century, in which these tools and media are part of everyday life, even if that is family-life. A positive note therefore, can be that other young parents can pick up some advice from these videos. Also, for them these vlogs are nice memories for when the girls are older.
Another channel with babies is 2wmn of which Willemijn became mother of Jelle over a year ago and quite recently gave birth to Gijs. She posted one video explaining the birth of the little fellow without showing any footage, and she never shows the faces of the boys. Willemijn explained clearly that she doesn't show their faces to respect their privacy. Also, her vlogs don't evolve around the children, as the vlogs of Stellig do, but around her own activities. This is quite a different approach to showing children, and I believe this is more mindful and even respectful towards the little ones.
In the middle of these two examples is a story from Jill creator of CrocoJill who is a daily vlogger and used to film the young daughter of her friend when she visited them. At one point her friend decided to respect the girls privacy and it was arranged with Jill to leave the little girl out of her vlogs. I suppose it’s 21st century-appropriate parenting.
Lesson: I suppose the topic of parenting has a very specific audience, however the lesson from this topic that goes for every reader is to be mindful about posting. This is also especially important when others are involved in the footage. I always joke that I’m going to ask for 5 Euro’s whenever I see a stranger taking a picture which captures me as well. I won’t but it’s just an example to always consider other people’s privacy when posting detailed footage such as vlogs of children.
Also check out the Twitter page of this project @IamVlogged
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