How Vulnerable Kids Became Clickbait

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Personal Journals, Kids & Family, Technology, Parenting, Society & Culture

4.3 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Content featuring sick, sad, or injured children usually performs best online. Let that sink in. That insane fact is just one of the unsettling realities journalist Fortesa Latifi uncovered while reporting her new book, Like, Follow, Subscribe, a deep dive into the world of kid influencers and the children growing up as brands. In this episode of Under the Influence, Latifi explores why vulnerable childhood moments go viral, what happens to parent-child intimacy when a phone is always present, and how some kids say they stopped confiding in their parents because private experiences were turned into content. The conversation also examines the murky legal landscape around child influencer profits, the rise and reinvention of former kid star Piper Rockelle, and the growing fear around AI and deepfakes manipulating children’s images online. Like, Follow, Subscribe is available wherever books are sold. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hey all, Joe here and you are listening to Under the Influence.
0:39.6	A lot of things in this episode today truly gave me chills.
0:44.1	They also made me think about what a moral and ethical gray area we are currently living in right now when it comes to influencing, social media, and children.
0:53.6	See, one of my friends is a reporter and author
0:56.0	who has covered influencers very seriously and rigorously since the very beginning. When Fretessa
1:02.9	Latifie was reporting her book, Like, Follow, Subscribe, Influencer Kids, and the Cost of a
1:08.8	childhood online, she asked influencer parents what kind of content performed best for them.
1:14.2	And many of them said, on the record, that its content with her child is sick, sad, or injured.
1:21.9	And that should freak you out about the things that get made and put on the internet, the things that go viral, and the things that a lot of us are consuming.
1:28.9	But it also brings up a much bigger question. What happens when childhood itself becomes content?
1:35.8	So today we are talking to Fortessa. We're really digging into this new book, like, follow, subscribe.
1:41.3	It's available for pre-order now. And we're getting into the entire ecosystem
1:45.0	of kids and influencing. Not just these medical mamas, but family vloggers, kid
1:51.5	YouTubers, teen TikTok stars, content houses, influencer legislation, and the pipeline from
1:58.4	child stardom online to platforms like only fans.
2:04.0	There are no easy answers here, because on one side of this, you have exploitation,
2:09.6	and on the other, you have branding opportunities that could possibly help a kid get into college.
2:15.2	And hovering over all of this is a digital economy that tells kids
	...

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