The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing
Updated 8:59 AM EDT May 29, 2024
Cam Barrett knows the precise date of her first menstrual period. Her mother posted the news on Facebook.
“I was in fourth grade. I was 9 years old. The date was September 9, 2009. And my mom posted … something like, ‘Oh my God, my baby girl’s a woman today. She got her first period,’” Barrett said.
“A lot of my friends and their parents had social media, so it was super embarrassing.”
Barrett’s childhood overlapped with the dawn of the social media era. She said her mother was an avid user of MySpace and Facebook, where she posted details about their lives and many of Barrett’s private moments.
Nothing about her life was off-limits, including her tantrums, her medical diagnoses and the fact that she’s adopted, said Barrett, who uses the pronouns she and they.
The popularity of her mother’s posts earned them attention and perks from celebrities, such as front-row tickets to a Demi Lovato concert, Barrett said. But the oversharing severely impacted her as a child. In middle school, bullies used the information to mock her, causing her anxiety and other mental health struggles, they said.
Sometimes, she hid in her room to avoid appearing on camera. She didn’t confide in adults during her teenage years because she feared her secrets would end up on social media, she said.
Her mother did not respond to repeated requests from CNN for comment.
Now 25, Barrett is part of a growing movement of young people who are urging lawmakers to protect children whose parents monetize their images, videos and private lives on social media. Though it’s unclear whether her mother earned revenue from the content — Barrett was too young to understand the process — the oversharing took a toll on her mental health, she said.
The young advocates are calling for financial compensation for these children, and their right to delete unwanted content when they become adults.
Posts about her staph infection led to bullying at school, she says
Barrett shares with her 240,000 followers on TikTok her views on exploitive “sharenting” or family vlogging culture. The term “sharenting” is a mashup of sharing and parenting — involving the publicizing of kids’ personal information — while vlogging is shorthand for video-led blogging.
Barrett, a social media strategist who lives in Chicago, said her life was chronicled so much online that a man once sent her a private message on Facebook when she was 12. The message said he’d followed her home as she rode her bike and knew where she lived. The incident increased her anxiety and made her feel like strangers were watching her every move, she said.
Cam Barrett appears virtually from her car during a Washington state legislature hearing on February 14, 2023.
At a hearing in February 2023, she tearfully urged Washington state lawmakers to pass a law that protects minor children whose private lives are documented by family members on social media.
In addition to the details above, she also told lawmakers that when she was 15, she was in a car accident. Instead of extending a comforting hand, her mother shoved a camera in her face, she said. She later told CNN that her mother took photos and videos of her on a hospital gurney and posted them to Facebook.
CNN searched her mother’s social media accounts and found one photo that appears to be from the accident. It’s unclear whether she removed the other photos or restricted her Facebook settings.
Barrett also testified that in her first year of high school, she got a staph infection that landed her in the hospital. Her mother posted to social media exaggerated accounts of her condition, she said.
“When I returned to school, my math teacher — who had seen my mother’s posts — would taunt me and tell kids to stay away from the infected girl,” Barrett told lawmakers. This led to bullying and eventually to her dropping out of school, she said.
“I plead you to be the voice for this generation of children because I know firsthand what it’s like to not have a choice in which a digital footprint you didn’t create follows you around for the rest of your life.”
In interviews with CNN, Barrett said the oversharing created a lot of tension between her and her mother, and the two barely talk now.
Advocates want legal protections for child influencers
Updated 8:59 AM EDT May 29, 2024
Cam Barrett knows the precise date of her first menstrual period. Her mother posted the news on Facebook.
“I was in fourth grade. I was 9 years old. The date was September 9, 2009. And my mom posted … something like, ‘Oh my God, my baby girl’s a woman today. She got her first period,’” Barrett said.
“A lot of my friends and their parents had social media, so it was super embarrassing.”
Barrett’s childhood overlapped with the dawn of the social media era. She said her mother was an avid user of MySpace and Facebook, where she posted details about their lives and many of Barrett’s private moments.
Nothing about her life was off-limits, including her tantrums, her medical diagnoses and the fact that she’s adopted, said Barrett, who uses the pronouns she and they.
The popularity of her mother’s posts earned them attention and perks from celebrities, such as front-row tickets to a Demi Lovato concert, Barrett said. But the oversharing severely impacted her as a child. In middle school, bullies used the information to mock her, causing her anxiety and other mental health struggles, they said.
Sometimes, she hid in her room to avoid appearing on camera. She didn’t confide in adults during her teenage years because she feared her secrets would end up on social media, she said.
Her mother did not respond to repeated requests from CNN for comment.
Now 25, Barrett is part of a growing movement of young people who are urging lawmakers to protect children whose parents monetize their images, videos and private lives on social media. Though it’s unclear whether her mother earned revenue from the content — Barrett was too young to understand the process — the oversharing took a toll on her mental health, she said.
The young advocates are calling for financial compensation for these children, and their right to delete unwanted content when they become adults.
Posts about her staph infection led to bullying at school, she says
Barrett shares with her 240,000 followers on TikTok her views on exploitive “sharenting” or family vlogging culture. The term “sharenting” is a mashup of sharing and parenting — involving the publicizing of kids’ personal information — while vlogging is shorthand for video-led blogging.
Barrett, a social media strategist who lives in Chicago, said her life was chronicled so much online that a man once sent her a private message on Facebook when she was 12. The message said he’d followed her home as she rode her bike and knew where she lived. The incident increased her anxiety and made her feel like strangers were watching her every move, she said.
Cam Barrett appears virtually from her car during a Washington state legislature hearing on February 14, 2023.
At a hearing in February 2023, she tearfully urged Washington state lawmakers to pass a law that protects minor children whose private lives are documented by family members on social media.
In addition to the details above, she also told lawmakers that when she was 15, she was in a car accident. Instead of extending a comforting hand, her mother shoved a camera in her face, she said. She later told CNN that her mother took photos and videos of her on a hospital gurney and posted them to Facebook.
CNN searched her mother’s social media accounts and found one photo that appears to be from the accident. It’s unclear whether she removed the other photos or restricted her Facebook settings.
Barrett also testified that in her first year of high school, she got a staph infection that landed her in the hospital. Her mother posted to social media exaggerated accounts of her condition, she said.
“When I returned to school, my math teacher — who had seen my mother’s posts — would taunt me and tell kids to stay away from the infected girl,” Barrett told lawmakers. This led to bullying and eventually to her dropping out of school, she said.
“I plead you to be the voice for this generation of children because I know firsthand what it’s like to not have a choice in which a digital footprint you didn’t create follows you around for the rest of your life.”
In interviews with CNN, Barrett said the oversharing created a lot of tension between her and her mother, and the two barely talk now.
Advocates want legal protections for child influencers
