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| This picture of Ryan is used in their YouTube icon and header image, setting the tone of the channel. |
Content
The first thing that I noticed about Ryan’s World was the wide variety in content. The channel used to be called Ryan ToysReview, and I suspect that they changed the name to Ryan’s World as they began to diversify their content beyond just toy reviews. They’ve put out countless types of videos, so I decided to discuss the ones that I found the most notable.
The first videos that I noticed are tutorials on various DIY children’s science experiments, like growing bacteria, making elephant toothpaste, and using sand that never gets wet. These tutorials demonstrate how to do the experiments, explain their educational value, and show the Kaji family having fun throughout the process. The tone of these videos is clearly meant to be entertaining for kids, but also provide educational content, making science seem fun.
There are also several other educational videos, which explain concepts like the three states of matter, floods, and the solar system. Ryan is only featured at the beginning and the end of these videos, doing some sort of skit relevant to the lesson. For the rest of each video, Ryan's mom explains the video's topic in an animated tone, using physical demonstration or on-screen graphics to illustrate the concepts. This seems more like a kid’s show than a typical YouTube video, which strikes me as odd. I also find it interesting that Ryan is not featured very much in these videos, even though the channel is mainly centered around him.
The videos that seem especially strange to me are the ones that show him playing pretend. For example, in a video where he plays pretend as a police officer, I can't help but notice how performative it appears. Ryan only really plays with adults (like his parents) and seems to be almost reading a script, or at the very least is guided through a story. It's almost a mix of a low-budget kids’ show and a home video, because it looks fake, but not fake enough to be fully professional.
Despite the channel’s previous name, it was actually a bit harder for me to find recent videos of Ryan just reviewing toys. Instead, it seems like the toy reviews are implicitly embedded into other videos, rather than being their own thing. However, when I scrolled farther back, I found reviews of a Thanos Infinity Gauntlet and a Bubble Machine toy. These videos show Ryan opening and playing with toys with various members of his family. I can almost understand how seeing a toy review might show kids things that they want to get for themselves. However, I don’t get why they would want to just watch other kids play with the toys.
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| Here is Ryan with the Infinity Gauntlet toy, which he was sent to review. I imagine the companies rake in a lot of profit from Ryan's reviews! |
There are also several channels linked to Ryan’s World that are run by the same family, but have a different focus. For example, there’s a Spanish version of his channel and a Japanese one, which have significantly fewer subscribers, but show their global reach. They also have other channels with different kinds of content, like a doodle animation channel about Ryan’s sisters, a channel starring an alligator that is extremely reminiscent of children’s television, a video game channel starring an animated panda, and one where Ryan plays video games with animated characters. These channels have both a more specific focus and a more professional tone. But, they also have a more casual vlog-style channel about their family and a behind-the-scenes or blooper channel.
The many different types of channels remind me of tactics that Twitter users employ to seem more authentic. By balancing different kinds of content, both personal and professional, the Ryan’s World brand is able to seem more “real” (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p. 127). The amount of personal information is likely to be strategically chosen, though it just seems like an honest glimpse into the family’s day-to-day life (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p. 127). This helps them build a solid fanbase of people who don’t just watch for the content, but for the family themselves. Viewers will watch any content that they put out, because they are fans of the family itself.
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| Pictured here is Ryan, his sisters, and his mother. |
I also checked to see if they have links to other social media accounts, and the only publicly available one is their Instagram. This page is managed by Ryan’s parents, and contains pictures and videos of the family. I didn’t see any blatantly promotional content on their page, which makes me think that this is another way for them to build authenticity in the eyes of the viewer. While these photos could be staged, it seems like a real depiction of what the Kaji family is like.
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| These are the kinds of images featured on the Ryan's World Instagram account. |
Interactions
The next thing that I wanted to do was examine how the channel interacts with viewers in the comments. However, Ryan’s World actually has all of their comments turned off. Upon looking it up, I learned that this was probably a recent change from YouTube, not a personal choice of the Kaji family. YouTube previously got in trouble for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) U.S. law, which led the site to introduce a lot of changes. One of those changes was removing the comments sections from videos marked as being “for kids.” This is meant to protect kids who are using the Internet, but it also means that there is no way for the channel to interact with its viewers on YouTube. |
| This tweet breaks down the changes made for COPPA. |
The removal of comments may be a problem for Ryan’s World, since one of the ways that brands are successful in the modern era is through strategic interaction with their fans. Without YouTube comments, the channel can’t reinforce ideal fan behavior, so they have a lot less control over their fanbase (Navar-Gill, 2018, p. 415). In other words, the channel can't “hail” the ideal fan in the comments, so their fans are free to act in ways that hurt Ryan's World (Navar-Gill, 2018, p. 416).
On Instagram, however, they are able to engage with their fans in the comments. This mainly includes positive responses to funny comments or comments that compare the Kaji family to their own. Since the Instagram account is run by Ryan’s parents, it makes sense that the responses they give are primarily directed at other parents. While the YouTube channel is aimed more at children, their Instagram account appeals to the parents of these children. This ensures that entire families are fans of Ryan’s World.
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| Responding to fellow parents helps @ryansworld engage with adults as well as children. |
Instagram comments are a way for Ryan’s parents to “reward” fans for positive interaction, which can help to guide future comments towards emulating these desired comments (Navar-Gill, 2018, p. 418). While the COPPA rules might be necessary for ensuring the safety of children online, they also mean that Ryan's World can't have this level of engagement on YouTube. This means that all the pressure to interact with fans is from Instagram.
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| This positive reinforcement encourages similar comments. |
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| In this comment interaction, it's clear that @ryansworld is specifically replying to positive comments from other parents. |
What's the appeal?
I think that the main reason why kids like Ryan’s World is that Ryan seems like a celebrity, role model, or even friend to them. Seeing a kid their age being so successful and getting all the toys he could ever want would definitely make him an object of admiration. This is similar to the way that many adults are fascinated with celebrities like the Kardashians. Additionally, I wouldn’t be surprised if some kids form a parasocial relationship with Ryan and his family, where they perceive themselves as friends, despite not knowing Ryan in person. The framing of the videos seems authentic enough that a kid might feel like they're really there.
These videos also provide kids with a way to learn about new toys. These review videos are basically commercials, but the credibility that Ryan and his family have built up with their fans means that the kids are more likely to trust them over a typical commercial. Therefore, the entertainment extends beyond the actual content of the channel, allowing kids to learn about new toys to play with.
Finally, I think that these videos are so popular because they're produced to be specifically appealing to kids. Using humor that you'd typically find on a children's television show, showing other kids having fun, and creating characters that kids like is the perfect way to reel in their audience. These features are strategically used to appeal to the Kaji family's imagined audience, which seems to be very accurate to their actual audience (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p. 115).
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| Ryan and his sisters might seem like real friends to many young viewers. |
Dangers of kids online
While Ryan and his siblings may appear to really enjoy their YouTube gig, I think that there are a lot of dangers that come with putting a child on the Internet. One way I'm sure this manifests is through a strain on familial relationships. With the constant need to record, there is a pressure to repress any familial conflict so that it doesn't interfere in the content of the channel. When your family becomes your primary source of income, it needs to be perfect. This can’t possibly be a healthy way for a kid to grow up.
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| Would Ryan's parents ever let him stop acting? |
That also ties into my concerns about exploitation. Exploitation is defined as a form of domination where “one group controls property and the means to force others to work so that they produce goods or property that they do not own themselves, but the owning class controls” (Fuchs, 2017, p. 15). Based on this definition, Ryan’s situation sounds like a textbook example of exploitation. His parents control all the profits that he makes on the channel, and their power over him means that he can be forced to continue to work. While Ryan's parents do play a role in the videos, they still put a huge burden of making money onto their children.
Thinking about this exploitation, I came to wonder if child labor laws apply to family YouTubers, and I actually found an article that elaborates on that topic. Many child labor laws aren’t applicable to “kidfluencers” like Ryan, meaning that they have a lot less protection. Since they don’t technically count as child actors, they don’t benefit from laws that limit the number of hours they can work. This means that Ryan is in a gray area in the law, and could easily be taken advantage of with no legal barriers.
Finally, my last concern relates to privacy. The safety of kids online might be endangered when so much personal information is on display. I worry that there are people watching who don’t have such innocent intentions, and I believe that child predators could use a lot of the information from the videos to commit wrongdoings. In this regard, it is good that Ryan's parents control the YouTube and Instagram accounts, but still, overexposure to social media can be dangerous for many kids.
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| Ryan's World has over 24 million subscribers, a huge audience for a kid! |
Dangers of watching
In addition to being dangerous for the “kidfluencers” themselves, I also think that this content could negatively impact the kids who watch it.
The first downside is that toy review content promotes rampant consumerism. While the educational videos seem like they could be really positive, the content that focuses on toys promotes the idea that kids need all the newest toys to be happy. This is particularly harmful for lower income kids, since this sets an unattainable expectation for them.
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| The constant stream of new toys that Ryan plays with promotes a consumerist lifestyle. |
Final thoughts
After checking out Ryan’s channel, I admit that I still don’t see the appeal, and I am actually more concerned than I originally thought I would be. I’m glad that the Kaji family is successful and able to put out content that kids enjoy, but I worry about the downsides that go unacknowledged. Hopefully all is well, but we can never really tell what goes on behind the camera.
References
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Marwick, A. E., & boyd, d. (2010). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society 13(1), 114–133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313
Navar-Gill, A. (2018). From strategic retweets to group hangs: Writers’ room Twitter accounts and the productive ecosystem of TV social media fans. Television & New Media, 19(5), 415-430. doi:10.1177/1527476417728376
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