Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Advertising Their Cuties on the Internet

The other night I was procrastinating from doing my homework, which is a frequent pasttime of mine. And when doing this, one can usually find me lying on the floor of my bedroom, my eyes glued to a video on YouTube. Am I watching educational videos that are helping me with my schoolwork? Wish I could say that was true, but unfortunately no. On my "Frequently Watched" video lists on the website, you will find my page is loaded withcountless videos of different young children, showing their cuteness to the World of the Internet. Should parents be videotaping their children and putting these cute and adorable videos online? And what is their purpose for doing this? This is what I set out to discover.

Take the following video for example. This is a little girl, posing in her little diapers and a tanktop, standing in front of a mock stage setup. She has a disproportionate acoustic guitar in her hands and a mini microphone stand in front of her. She sings "Hey Jude," the reknowned classic by the Beatles.



It's adorable. But what were those parents thinking? This poor child is what they are using to get Internet fame. There are countless stories of people achieving fame through their accounts and numerous videos on YouTube. For example, violinist Alex DePue found his YouTube fame.

Maybe I am making faulty assumptions, but I can't help to think that the parents of all the cute little kids on TV are making these kids rehearse so th eInternet world will comment on how indescribably adorable their cuties are!

I just feel some sympathy for these kids, because who knows what they will say to their parents when they grow up and find themselves half-naked singing out-of-tune Beatles hits on the Inter net.

2 comments:

Grace Kim said...

For me, although cute, this video is quiite disturbing. To what extent does a parent want their kids to have have that they would exploit them on youtube? There are some pretty creepy people who stalk you tube and placing a video of your 5 year child does not seem like good parenting.

wkim55 said...

The first place where I saw this baby was on this korean show where people come out to show their talents. When I first saw him, I completly screamed because he was so adorable but I definately agree with your thoughts of parents wanted internet fame through their children because as I kept watching him on tv, I got the thought of "what kind of parents would want their 5 year old kid out there on tv?" Although the baby is extremely cute, I don't think this is the right thing for parents to do to their child.