Blog #7

Hulyan Maya

   For this blog, I decided to select the Youtube kids influencers Hulyan (10) & Maya (8). Now before this blog, I have never really heard of kid influencers on Youtube. Well I heard of kid influencers such as Jojo Siwa, but Hulyan and Maya are a very different type of influencers. Jojo Siwa is in control of the content that she posts on her Youtube channel, rather Hulyan and Maya are the ones being filmed by their parents, and I am not sure if they are able to have a say in what goes on their Youtube channel. But after watching ten of their Youtube videos, for some reason I was very interested in watching all of their content. So interested, that I even subscribed!

What Type of Content Do They Make?

In the past, there have been times where I have been so bored to the point that I will end up watching anything on Youtube. I have watched content from every ride POV at Disney World to videos that teach me sign language. I have also viewed the Youtube world of adults who un-package toys and review them. Never have I seen a video of kids reviewing toys, or a video of kids just being kids. Hulyan Maya call themselves a toy channel, but not only do they post them playing with toys, but also doing fun activities such as them playing on a playground or going to an amusement park. I watched their video called "Visiting Mickey Mouse House! Pretty Minnie Mouse House! Christmas Holidays in a Theme Park," and it was literally just as the titled stated. They went to Disneyland and just filmed the kids enjoying their time while exploring Minnie and Mickey's house. Another video that caught my attention was the one where the kids went to explore an indoor playground, and the first thing one of the kids said was "this is like the Mcdonald's playground but bigger" and after watching the video, it was nothing like a Mcdonald's playground. It had pretend shopping centers, banks, pizza place, and many other common places that kids were able to play pretend in. But because one of the kids said that statement, I do believe that is what makes content like this so interesting to an older audience. Kids say exactly what comes to their mind and I do believe that is what attracts their adult viewers to the Youtube account. Other content that they make is just the kids playing with toys. It is not necessarily a toy "review" because the kids do not really review them, the parents just show their live reaction while they are playing with the toy. 

How do They Interact with Users in the Comments?

How they interact with the users in the comments is something I was looking forward to seeing. We all know it is not the kids who are in control of the channel, so I wanted to see how their parents responded to rude comments, or if they even responded to comments at all. Well I was certainly disappointed. They have their comments completely turned off. And this is for every single video. Honestly, if I was posting videos of my children and making money off of them, I would have my comments turned off too. There are too many people in this world that feel the need to voice their opinion about everything, especially when it comes to how parents raise their children. "Complaints of abuse and harassment on social media have grown to the point where they can no longer be minimised or dismissed. It has Towards a critical theory of online abuse 31 become apparent that abuse and harassment is a predictable and recurring feature of social media rather than just a ‘glitch’ or ‘bug’. This is now being acknowledged by social media companies" (Salter, 2017). I do believe Youtube acknowledge social media abuse and harassment by creating this feature of turning off all comments. I have just never seen the feature consistently used on a channel until I watched Hulyan Maya.

Why do You Think They Resonate with Children?

I believe children are so interested in Hulyan Maya because of the fact that they are very casual and play as if there was not a camera on them. The channel participates in activities that most kids do not have the opportunity to do and to watch other kids have fun brings them a little bit of excitement and feeling as if they were actually there playing with them. Because Hulyan Maya are very casual when it comes to how their videos are filmed and setup, it is like the viewers are able to see what it is like to experience something through a child's point of view. Also the way the channel probably hooks children in to watch their videos, is the pictures they use as their cover photos of their video. They are all very colorful and always displaying a cool toy.

What are the Danger of Putting Your Kid Online to Create Content like This?

There are a lot of dangers when it comes to putting your kid online to create content like this or even just putting your children online at all. I do not know the history of how Hulyan Maya started, but it seems to me that it just started out as a family making home videos, and would post them on Youtube for other family members to see. There is not a person on this earth is not at least a little bit embarrassed by their home videos. Well try having your home videos posted on the internet for millions of people to see. This leads to my first point of how this content is dangerous for the children in the video. They have no sorts of privacy, and never really will have privacy. When these kids get to college, I wonder how if they will be recognized still by being the kids from that one Youtube channel. Or if their friends will bring up their old Youtube videos and embarrass them. The kids did not really have a say in this life that their parents built for them, and it will affect them for the rest of their life. Another danger is that videos like these could attract dangerous people. People are crazy nowadays and will use these videos for inappropriate activities. 

The only danger I could think of when it comes to letting your child watch this content is them creating unrealistic goals and high expectations for themselves and the things they want. Because honestly as a child, I would have been begging my mom to take me to all of these places and would not stop begging until I got my way. I also probably would have wanted to become a Youtuber when I grew up. And this is not a realistic goal a mother wants to hear their child say.

sources:

Salter, M. (2017). Crime, justice and social media. London ; New York: Routledge.