Coming to Netflix, April 9th 2025 Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. This documentary follows a group of child influencers, sharing their stories that the media was unaware of. Child exploitation is a big issue within childhood fame. And oftentimes ruins these kids’ childhoods.

In today’s society there are many cases where rise to fame seems to be overnight. These young public figures have millions of eyes on them at all times and that can be a lot of pressure to be perfect.​​ These children can develop mental issues and problems with addiction in the future. Some examples of this are Amanda Bines from She’s the Man, Lindsay Lohan from Mean girls, Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone and many more. Children, especially under the age of 18 are affected the most because they are still developing, due to their age. Being in the spotlight can take away their chance of a normal childhood and privacy. According to Aubrey Kasden a Sophomore at Liberty High school “Being in the public eye can definitely affect a child’s sense of self because they are constantly putting on a front for what their parents want them to do in front of the camera”.

Exploitation within child influencers is not uncommon. To help this issue TikTok and YouTube regulations are put in place to help protect these children. Children who are exploited at a young age, “don’t grow up to have friends or don’t know how to communicate” Said by Grethell Tabora a Junior at Liberty High school. Parents can push their kids too far most times for financial gain or personal recognition. It is not fair that the parents can profit off their children because, “At the end of the day it is the children who are doing the work or whatever they are doing and that’s their profit” said by Aubrey Kasden.

These parents with dreams of their kids becoming an influencer put their children in danger by sharing them with the public. Putting them in the spotlight can bring unwanted attention to these children. They can also be a target for cyberbullying with hurtful comments or even being harassed. This can lead to mental issues and inefficiency of self esteem.

Child influencers may have great financial and personal gain but it also comes along with greater challenges. Childhood fame just can ruin a child’s mental health and may show that it was not worth all of the challenges that you have to overcome. So parents should consider the positives and negatives more before introducing their children to that lifestyle.