WHY IT MATTERS
Publicly featured children can become subjects of thousands of opinions about their appearance, personality, intelligence, behaviour and development. Even positive attention can create pressure, while cruel comments can become particularly damaging during formative years.
1. DON’T FEED CHILDREN COMMENT SECTIONS
They don’t need unrestricted access to strangers’ opinions about them.
2. MODERATE PERSONAL ATTACKS
Remove comments targeting children.
3. PROTECT APPEARANCE
Don’t allow discussion of a child’s body or attractiveness to become normalized.
4. DON’T ENCOURAGE AUDIENCE COMPARISONS
Viewers shouldn’t rank siblings against one another.
5. KEEP DEVELOPMENT PRIVATE
Children shouldn’t be publicly judged against developmental expectations.
6. DON’T USE CRUEL COMMENTS AS CONTENT
Reading insults aloud can amplify their harm.
7. TEACH THAT AUDIENCES DON’T DEFINE THEM
Popularity and criticism are both external opinions.
8. WATCH FOR CHANGES IN SELF-IMAGE
Children may internalize repeated commentary.
9. REDUCE EXPOSURE WHEN NECESSARY
Protection matters more than engagement.
10. BUILD CONFIDENCE OFFLINE
A child’s strongest source of validation should come from healthy real-world relationships.
BOTTOM LINE
Children should not grow up under public review. Their developing self-image is too important to hand to a comment section.