Project proposal:

Growing up in this new age of technology and social media, children of the twenty-first century have grown up faster and earlier. Or have they? They are presenting older and more mature due to social pressures. Although they look eighteen at the age of twelve, they still maintain the emotional and social intelligence of their actual age. Because of this, children unintentionally enter a conflicting mental state of believing they are more holistically evolved due to their presentation. They have the opportunity to become an influencer and acquire a substantial amount of money without the knowledge of how to handle it. So where does that money go? Is it protected like the children’s money in Hollywood due to the Coogan Law? Technology has evolved so quickly, and policies struggle to keep up with its advancements. 

Children are not the only ones taking advantage of this potential income which could lead to emotional damage; their parents are too. From YouTube to TikTok, parents discovered that creating family content and blogging (or, as I like to call it, child exploitation) allows them to transform their lives and make them millions of dollars. While child labor laws are in place to protect children from overworking and prevent abuse in the workplace, they do not apply to family-owned businesses, especially those that make their living on the internet. Before they are even born, children are being exploited by their parents. This could lead to long-term sociological damage for the child. They may struggle to form healthy relationships because of the performative family environment they grew up in. 

Children have been making money from a young age for a very long time but not for their own wallets but for their parents, and if they are not working a salary-paying job, they are working for their parents’ businesses. Although it does not appear to be true, children still enter the workforce at a very young age, but as the world evolves, so does the type of labor performed. 

For my essay, I want to explore the effects of children who join the workforce at a young age and how their relationships with their parents are affected. I am curious about the free will of children and how the idea of childhood has changed over the years. Does a childhood of play and self-discovery exist anymore, or did it ever exist in the first place? Through my observation, what is seen in front of the camera today, that being the picture-perfect family, is not how a family behaves when the camera is off. I predict that having a clear understanding that you are being used for profit is less psychologically damaging than the modern-day unclear and inauthentic interactions with your parents. I wonder if children of older generations or this one acquire a genuine passion for their jobs or families’ businesses or if they quickly learn the required skills for survival. How has the physical labor of children changed over time, and does the emotional labor of this social media performance outweigh the jobs of the past?