The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
Author: Shari Franke
Rating: ā 4/5
Date Read: 2025/02/12
One of the (many) reasons why I stepped away from social media was the discomfort I felt when my friends and family members started sharing too much about their children.
Children are great. They also canāt consent to having their lives turned into content for the amusement of their parents (not to mention the profits of wildly unethical corporations that only care about this quarterās earnings).
The transactional exchange of voyeurism for external validation from strangers is bad enough, but it gets worse when real money gets involved. The minimal regulations that allow child actors to be taken advantage of by profit-seeking parents have come under fire over the past few decades, but where is the outrage over mommy vloggers who donāt have to adhere to any standards at all?
The House of My Mother is an incredibly brave memoir written by Shari Franke, a young woman who was used as fodder for a āwholesomeā family YouTube channel while being abused behind the scenes.
This book is important, disturbing, and a must-read for anyone who cares about the impact of technology on child development.
If the exploitation of child influencers bothers you, please contact your local congresspeople and demand legislation that protects children by regulating this heinous industry. The tech companies will not police themselves, and children will continue to be traumatized by abusive families until regulations are put in place.