Before there was Babies, the movie, there were babies, on YouTube. A video of a four-year-old girl crying because her family is moving is reigniting the debate over what’s appropriate to post online. Why do people watch this stuff?
The video in question is two years old, but it was posted recently by BuzzFeed and BestWeekEver, leading Salon to wonder,
Where’s the line between cute and sad? What’s flat-out cruel? Recording a heartbroken preschooler who’s moving halfway across the world seems like a pretty clear sensitivity failure, but what about one who’s just having an old-fashioned temper tantrum? Or falling on his face? Come to think of it, even when a child is doing something so adorable it’ll make your brain melt, is it really always a hot idea to share it with the planet?
Not every parent who posts a baby video is trying to make it go viral — some of them are intended for families and friends, probably more than there are from Balloon-boy-style famewhores. That said, privacy settings exist for a reason, and there are plenty of people who are intentionally trying to rack up the hits off their children’s vulnerable moments. “David After Dentist” comes to mind. But why are there so many takers?
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