The opening of Christmas gifts, a baking afternoon, the first few meters on the bike or a difficult choreography, these are banal images of family happiness, as all families do. Except that their own photos are not just for grandparents, but for their thousands of followers. They are the influencer parents, these 2.0 families who document their daily lives – and that of their offspring – on social networks.
This is particularly the case of the Coste family. For eight years, the parents, Audrey and Sébastien, have shared their life, and that of their three children, with whom they live on the other side of the world. Result : 251,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 113,000 on Instagram. Chris is an influencer dad, which has a total of 824,000 followers on Instagram and more than 5 million on TikTok. Except that the star is not him, but his granddaughter, Lily-Ana, whose daily life he films. Some children already have their own account, even before they know how to speak. At four years old, Tiago has already won the loyalty more than 1.3 million people on his Instagram accountcreated by her parents, Manon and Julien Tanti, stars of reality TV.
“A very strong community relationship”
And they are not alone. According a study by the Observatory of Parenting and Digital Education, carried out by the company Potloc, 1.1% of French parents of children under 16 are influencers today and benefit from these publications. But the majority of them share a daily life “à la monsieur tout-le-monde”. There are the joys of the first times, the doubts about parenthood, the exhaustion of the newborn and the almost daily questions. And if it works so well, it’s because all parents can identify with it: “It starts from a fairly natural process of wanting to share what all parents are going through, so as not to feel alone. And it works. The parents who follow them find themselves in them”, explains Guillaume Benech, founder of Odace, an agency specializing in social networks.
But that’s not the only reason. If we explained to you, at the beginning of January, how Instagram had become the new Tinder, social networks are also playing a kind of Doctissimo 2.0: “Before, we looked Kindergartens to get some answers, today, we follow parents on social networks. It has become a source of information,” adds the specialist. “There is something very reassuring. Parents show their daily life in a natural way, they answer questions that everyone asks. Inevitably, we feel close to them, it frees up speech, we can even afford to ask them questions. There is a very strong community relationship,” continues Guillaume Benech.
A community, support, answers, but also money. And sometimes a lot of money. According to this same study, 47% of influencer parents say that this activity has become their only source of income, particularly through partnerships with brands. “Some families have made a real business out of it, when you know that a partnership with an account that has 500,000 subscribers on Instagram is between 1,500 and 5,000 euros on average, depending on the brand. For influencer parents who have a million subscribers, it’s even 4,000 to 5,000 euros, “figures the founder of Odace. It’s even a small gold mine for the 4% of influencer parents who say they earn more than 50,000 euros per month with this activity. But let’s still put the church in the middle of the village, the majority of these families (71%) receive less than 5,000 euros monthly with this activity, according to the figures of the study.
“The weight that we leave to these children”
But of course, there is still a catch. And even several. Starting with the consent of these children. More than half of influencer parents (56%) admit that they didn’t get it before posting one of these intimate moments. “It raises a lot of questions about children’s consent. Some parents are in a very commercial logic and that poses a problem of instrumentalization. Others pay attention to the child’s choice and desire. They don’t necessarily want to be filmed all the time”, regrets Guillaume Benech, who adds: “There is a narcissistic side to these parents, they are proud to show their children to the world”.
If toddlers are unable to give their opinion, growing up, they sometimes regret this overexposure. Four out of ten teenagers find that their parents have exposed them too much on the networks, according to a Microsoft study, published in 2019. “There is the weight that we leave to these children. For those who are five years old today, it can be complicated later, in school, in adolescence and even in their future life. A young person who sees photos of him on Google when he was little, on the pot, inevitably, that can be a problem, ”warns the specialist.
Especially since these contents do not come about on their own. In some families, it has even become a full-time job for the parents – and necessarily for the children. Nearly 60% of influencer parents believe that each piece of content takes almost an hour to prepare. Six out of 10 even say they need to shoot two to 10 takes before posting on social media. Some child protection associations regularly denounce these practices, which are no more, no less, than hidden work, or even forced labor, according to them.
“A first brick in the right to the image of the child”
Nevertheless, a law was passed in 2020 to frame the rights of these child influencers – sometimes despite themselves – under the age of 16. According to this text, carried by the deputy of Bas-Rhin Bruno Studer (Renaissance), there are two scenarios. First, where a child’s activity on online video platforms is considered work. “In this case, as with what already exists for child models or child artists, children are protected by the Labor Code. They must have a contract, remuneration, schedules or rest periods. And if this is not respected, we fall into concealed work, ”explains Me Alexandre Bigot Joly, lawyer specializing in communication law within the firm Influxio.
But before turning their children or broadcasting videos where they appear, parents must request individual authorization or approval from the administration. “Accreditation does not come easily. There is a file to compose and then it is a collegial decision of a judge for children, a representative of the rectorate and a child psychiatrist”, specifies the lawyer. Parents can also let an influencer agency handle this, but they too must have the green light from the administration. And no question for parents to pocket all the jackpot. According to this law, part of the income received by their child must be placed with the Caisse des dépôts et consignations until they reach majority or their emancipation, as is the rule for children in entertainment. As for the “grey area of the Internet”, where the activity of child influencers does not fall within an employment relationship, a declaration must be made, beyond certain thresholds of duration or number of videos or income derived from their distribution. “In fact, 90% of situations are related to the employment relationship,” adds the lawyer.
But a new law could further harden the tone. On January 19, this same deputy tabled a new text to guarantee respect for children’s image rights. His text proposes to introduce the notion of private life into the definition of parental authority in the Civil Code. “The parents will be required to jointly exercise the right to the image of the minor child while respecting his private life, his age and his degree of maturity”, explains Me Alexandre Bigot Joly, who continues: “it is a first brick in the right to the image of the child”.
And for good reason, according to figures from a report by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, published in 2020, “50% of the photographs that are exchanged on child pornography forums were initially published by parents on their social networks”. Far be it from us to discourage parents, but we put it there, you do what you want with it.