TikTok users began a movement to discourage people from posting content featuring young children after noticing a disturbing trend.
TikTok is littered with influencers of all ages, including very young children whose accounts are run by their parents. Such is the case of Wren Eleanor or @wren.eleanor on TikTok, a three-year old child whose account has more than 17 million followers and is run by her mother, Jacquelyn.
According to Rolling Stone, the TikTok account appears fairly innocuous, with videos largely featuring Wren Eleanor doing mundane things little girls do, such as climbing kitchen counters to get her hands on Girl Scout cookies or playing with water balloons on the fourth of July.
But Wren Eleanor's TikTok account is also posting sponsored content, which means she and her mother Jacquelyn are making money off their reach and community. Because of this, many people on the Internet have raised concerns over whether Wren Eleanor is being exploited for financial gain on social media and the response her account is receiving from creepy people on the Internet who follow her account.
Wren Eleanor's TikTok Account Sparks Argument Over Content Featuring Minors on Social Media
Adults and parents on TikTok and social media in general have raised concerns over whether it is appropriate to showcase children as young as Wren Eleanor on such a public platform. While the discussion has largely focused on the three year old and her mother, it has also expanded to other creators on the platform who post content of their very young children who are unaware of the repercussions of social media on their lives.
While there is absolutely no evidence that Wren Eleanor is being exploited by her mother, it is the comments and activity of her followers on TikTok that is raising concerns among parents and adults. These concerns were also centered on a now-deleted video of the three year old playing with a tampon or her taking a bath in a bathing suit. Such videos earn more likes and saves than her other videos.
One concerned parent named Makayla Musick had decided to cease sharing public content of her children online, telling Fox News that her decision came after she felt "absolutely appalled" by the disturbing trend of Wren Eleanor's followers and realized that she "needed to protect" her daughter.
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TikTok Users Observe Disturbing Trend on Wren Eleanor's Account
Users have noticed that Jacquelyn had begun deleting some of the content she posted after they pointed out how some of Wren Eleanor videos were being saved in numbers that sparked concern. TikTok's "save" feature enables users to tag videos so that it's easier to go back to another time.
A TikTok account called @hashtagfacts pointed out that one video of Wren Eleanor wearing a cropped orange shirt was saved over 45,000 times, while one video of the three year old child eating a hotdog was saved almost 375,000 times. The user also pointed out some of the unsettling comments on Wren Eleanor's account and highlighted that popular searches for the kid's account included phrases such as "Wren Eleanor hotdog" or "Wren Eleanor pickle."
This meant that users have intentionally used these keywords to search for Wren Eleanor's content. Similar popular searches for the three year old child appeared on Google. What's even more concerning is that TikTok videos and photos can be saved using a smartphone's screen-recording feature, so predators can effortlessly keep a personal copy of the content without any trace.
The discourse has not only inspired other parents on social media to take down content on their young children but also raise concerns over the safety of minors on social media, something that has been difficult to regulate by Big Tech companies. Others have taken to criticize Jacquelyn, who has not spoken out about the uproar over her account. She has however, taken down some of the content she has posted featuring her daughter.
