The son of a prominent influencer has recently spoken out about wearing a “No photos” hoodie in order to try and make a prominent point about their life and privacy rights.
Being an influencer is a hard life.
Nah, I’m just messing, it’s not. Being a healthcare worker, or a builder, or a lawyer is hard work, but “receiving a stressful amount of emails about products people want me to promote” is not a hard job and anyone who tells you otherwise is either dangerously delusional about reality, or just denser than a black hole at an all you can eat buffet.
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However, being related to an influencer can be difficult.
Being a close relative to an influencer can throw up certain personal problems.
Due to some influencer’s whole brand being built around ideas of family life, some (and again, I say “some” before everyone goes bananas) influencer’s family lives become the business of everyone on the internet.
And, for one prominent influencer’s son, this all became too much.
Problems arose when the son in question no longer wanted their image plastered all over social media.
As they became a teenager, this person took to Reddit using an account simply called, “FinallyAnonymous6”, to ask the following:
“[Am I The Asshole] AITA? My mom is an influencer. I am sick of being a part of it, I had ‘NO PHOTOS’ hoodies printed for me and my little sister.”
They went on to explain the backstory for their predicament.
“I am a teenager and my mom is kinda famous on Instagram and blogging. She had a mommy blog all when I was growing up and of course me and my sister were always involved,” they wrote. “It sucks because there’s so much out there about us and it’s what’s gonna come up when I’m looking for a job when I’m dating when anyone looks up my name.”
This person then found clothing that says the likes of, “No photos”, “no videos”, “I do not consent to be photographed”, “no means no”, “respect my privacy”, “no cameras”, and “no profiting off my image”.
They purchased one saying “No photos” for them and their 9-year-old sister.
However, their mother was far from pleased.
“My mom was mad when they showed up, and really mad when I’m wearing mine. Like she says she just wants pictures to remember my young years by, she won’t post ones without asking,” they explained.
“But I know that’s a whole mess anyway; she always says that and then negotiates me into letting her post, like either by saying that’s how she makes income so if I want money for something, to stop arguing about pictures. Or posting without asking and then saying I thought it would be ok because you’re facing wasn’t visible / you’re just in the background, etc.”
The responses to the post were plentiful and fervent.
With over 30, 000 upvotes, this moral dilemma began trending across AskReddit, garnering a lot of responses.
And, as you can probably imagine, the people across the internet had some very strong opinions on this issue as the person who posted it asked for guidance and if they were in the wrong for wearing their “no photos” hoodie all of the time.
There were those who claimed that everyone in the story was in the wrong.
One prominent answer by cjmaddux claimed that everyone in the story was in the wrong. They began by bizarrely explaining that they could see a silver lining in the worried son’s predicament:
“You are old enough that your mother should be talking things out with you and respecting your wishes. If you do not want to be a part of her brand, she should respect that. If she is insistent on the idea that including you in her posts drives her profit up, perhaps you should negotiate a cut of the revenue made off of your image.
“In other words, profit-driven by posts including you are subject to a split. Up to her if it is worth it, but that way you are seeing a benefit and can use it as a way to justify your presence online when you are looking for a job, and can even include it as past work experience.”
User cjmaddux then went on to side with the mother!
They went on to say:
“All of that said, if she has been successful with this blog and as a product influencer, and it is her career, thinking of outright sabotaging it is selfish and awful. There is mention here that you are considering reporting her, or going ‘public’ with your complaints in an effort to derail her career.
“If her job contributes to the household income that has bathed, fed, clothed, and otherwise contributed to your life, and your little sister’s, up to this point it would be extremely sh*tty of you to make an active effort to hurt her career. Not wanting to be a part of it without compensation is a far cry from outright sabotage.”
They then went on to say that a lot of people have to make sacrifices for work; however, a lot of people did not agree with this quite bizarre outlook!
The responses overwhelmingly decreed the influencer’s son, “Not an asshole”!
In general, people were disgusted that this person’s mother would deliberately exploit their child’s privacy, especially when this is strongly against their expressed wishes, with the top commenter explaining that the mother could always get another job or change her brand:
“Your mom has exploited you all your life, for money. That’s sh**ty enough, but then to try and guilt-trip/manipulate you into continuing to participate even though you’ve told her explicitly you don’t want to be a part of it anymore? That is beyond the pale.
“It’s not like being an influencer is the only job on earth. Go work in a travel agency or something! It’s also not like she couldn’t continue to be a blogger – she’d just have to rebrand to one that doesn’t focus on being a ‘mommy’ (yuck). Surely being a Mom isn’t the only interesting thing about her?” — VolupVeVa
There were also those wondering about the legality surrounding this issue.
There were a lot of parents wondering about the legislation regarding parents posting photos of the children online without their consent, with one person writing, “This is really interesting actually. Perhaps legislation needs to be introduced to protect children from this kind of thing. We need a national discussion about the privacy rights of kids.”
Another person even compared the issue to that of child actors, “there should be some type of legislation. We already have laws about child actors and this mommy blogger thing is very similar. There have already been people who have sued their parents over social media issues.”
Where do you stand on this issue?
Do you think that this child was in the right to order these hoodies, or do you stand with the mother?
Let me know in the comments where you land on this issue, as it is a fascinating (albeit in a morbid way) issue how we handle the rights of parents over their children’s personal lives on social media going forward.
