On Putting Children Online – and Dan Povenmire

So, this is a draft that’s been lying around and I figured that it was somewhat relevant again after “posting pictures of relatives/IRL people” became a topic on the Blaugust discord.

Either way, I wanted to talk about something that I feel very iffy about. I frankly dislike it when people post pictures of other people online without their consent. It’s even worse when it’s private images that weren’t meant to be posted in the first place…

But when parents post pictures or videos of their kids somewhere… that’s a whole other topic, right?

Well, no. Kids can’t consent. If you ever thought “but this one is more mature for its age”, then that’s problematic.

I’m not saying that parents shouldn’t post stuff like clips or photos of their kids online… I mean, it’s their kids and what do I know as a guy in his mid-twenties, right? But I’d rather want to urge parents to think about who can access their photos and videos and what the worst-case scenario would be for them.

The easiest way to do the former is to open up their profile in an incognito browser tab and just see what information is accessible to a person without an account and without being connected to them.

Social Media Networks like Facebook allow you to access that as well in the privacy settings, allowing you to view your page as a “friend” vs a “stranger”. I believe there are settings there to prevent people that aren’t related or friends to ya from accessing pictures.

But even with those settings and restrictions in mind, some Social Media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram or whatever cannot be restricted like that or can be viewed even without an account. I think Twitter has been forcing people to sign up nowadays, so there’s that… but still:

Think about who’s the worst possible person to find pictures of your children?

Dan Povenmire

The reason why I mentioned Dan Povenmire (the creator of many beloved voices, characters and kids shows) who’s an incredibly great person usually… Well, the reason for me mentioning him is this video down here.

To summarize what’s happening here so that you don’t have to watch a potentially disturbing video: A mother is using a filter to show her daughter in a very unflattering way – and she posted it onto TikTok where lots of people can see it.

The kid begs her mother to not film a video using that filter because “everyone on TikTok thinks that’s [her] real face”. This seems to not be an isolated incident. On top of that, the kid then screeches at her mother, showing further distress about it.

Am I overanalyzing this? Yes, probably. But my point is: We have a literal child here that begs her mother to stop and it’s still being ignored, posted on TikTok for the world to see.

To add onto this, Dan (usually a great guy!) laughs at this, finds it funny and describes it as “a parent turning the tables on their kid”.

That’s fucked up.

The big issue here is that this can be quite traumatizing. To know that no matter how much you beg and cry, your parent will not stop with the thing you don’t want them to do.

The people that defend this may say stuff like “it’s just for laughs” or whatever… but if people in that child’s class find this, they may make fun of her. They may bully her. You’re putting a target on your own kid – and Dan finds it funny, apparently.

The worst part about this is that Dan Povenmire has a huge platform on multiple channels. His YouTube channel has 1.35 million subscribers, his shorts get frequently close to if not more than 100k views, and his TikTok account has another 6.4 million followers.

It’s quite literally a huge platform he has and he decided to put this video that he himself edited together onto those platforms for more people out there to see a kid begging her mother to stop while also being shown online.

Dan Povenmire has two children and should be able to tell that this is wrong but he never responded to any comments left criticizing this. Maybe he doesn’t get it because he himself is a public figure and his children may also be in the showlight due to that. It’s wrong.

Conclusion

I don’t want to “cancel” Povenmire here but I just find it fucked up that he didn’t think about this specific incident. Again, usually, he’s a great guy.

Rather, what I want people to take away from this post is that putting your children out there on the internet is fucked up and can get literally anyone to just take it and repost it, anywhere. It’s not great.

Stuff on TikTok gets ripped non-stop and reposted. Clips like that can follow children forever. The internet is full of all kinds of people: Who is to say that a paedophile may not find out about your kids through this, using them as material?

If you’re a parent, please think about these things. Kids can’t consent and you’re supposed to be literal guardians to them. If a kid doesn’t want to do something and literally begs you to not do it, think about what message it sends when you ignore that and do it regardless of that.

Just think for a moment what a vulnerable being in their earliest years will take away from you ignoring their “no” and their begging and their cries.

This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.

If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.