Life as a Truman Baby

Directed by Peter Weir, The Truman Show is a mind bending, psychological comedy-drama of a man whose life is being broadcasted without his knowledge.  From his birth to his eventual escape, the main character Truman existed in a carefully manufactured world that used him for entertainment before he even had the ability to comprehend and question it all.

Although The Truman Show was released in 1998, putting this concept into a modern perspective is the term “Truman Babies”.  Similar to the film itself, “Truman Babies” are the result of parents that have documented, uploaded, and often profited off of their children’s lives since their birth for an online audience with Youtube being the most notable platform for Truman Babies to thrive on.    

Several notable family Youtube channels have recently come under fire for the way that parents exploit their children’s lives by invading their privacy in the name of showing an “authentic and honest” representation of family life.  The outrage isn’t simply over the fact that some parents share photos and videos of their children, but that documenting a majority of children’s lives from the moment they’re born takes away the kid’s autonomy and skews their perspective since being recorded and shown to the entire world becomes a normal concept to them since the very beginning.

Many concerns about children’s safety online have been brought up along with the conversation of the infamous Truman Babies and ask for parents to be more vigilant and aware about their presence and their children’s presence on social media.  Adolescents often need their parents to look out for them and to make the executive decisions to keep their children safe so it’s important for parent’s to be wary about the effects of social media and the idea of having a minor’s face and life being broadcasted to the whole world to see and do whatever they want with it.