TikTok influencer Savannah Glembin, who posts as @savannahglembin, has more than 1 million followers who tune in for her videos about motherhood, photography, and even some racy content with her husband. She recently posted a video of her 18-month-old son wrapped up in plastic wrap that led to Child Protective Services being called to investigate potential child abuse.
She posted a follow-up response tearfully describing the aftermath of the event and implying that her son was briefly removed from the home because of someone making a report to CPS after watching the original video.
Even though Glembin has deleted the original video, the internet is forever. Other TikTokers have stitched their feedback onto the video so viewers can still find the disturbing footage of the incident with little Gunnar, which provides needed context to understanding the teary and regretful response video. Although it seems clear the situation has been devastating for Glembin, it is also raising some important questions about using children as content and appropriate forms of discipline for toddlers.
In the original video, the toddler is wrapped from neck to knees in plastic wrap.
Although Glembin claims the video showed her husband and son "playing" and that the child was only in the plastic wrap for five minutes, she also acknowledges that the decision to wrap him up came after he'd been a "grumpy toddler" and been getting into the stove and "tried to put a fork into the socket."
She also claims that the toddler had room to move and was "laughing and smiling," which is hard to see from the clips in the video. Even though the child's feet and lower legs are free, he doesn't appear to be able to move his arms or to free himself from the plastic.
Although it appears that Gunnar was supervised by his parents while bound in cling wrap, it's still a dangerous thing to do. If he had fallen, he wouldn't have been able to use his arms to catch himself and, at 18 months, he doesn't have the language to express if he was overheating or feeling claustrophobic.
Glembin didn't expect to have CPS called.
In her video, Glembin remarks that she thought the video was funny and had gotten positive comments so she "didn’t know that someone had thought it was bad until yesterday when cops showed up at our door and separated us, his family."
As one commenter noted, some of Glembin's TikTok followers might have felt obligated to report the content, as binding a child can be considered abusive. "The video raises red flags — a mandatory reporter would have to report," the person wrote.
Other TikTokers also pointed out that there are different interpretations to the video and that to them, it didn't look like the child was playing.
"He didn’t look like he was having fun, his face looks like he’s been crying," someone commented.
The mother says that her child was removed from the home.
Although it is not clear from her account what the timeline of the situation was, Glembin opened her video by explaining that they were dealing with a situation where the child "has been taken from us until CPS can evaluate our home." In the comments, she further explains that the authorities "came in and separated us as a family without a social worker present to interview us or anything."
Clearly, it can be a stressful and traumatic experience to have CPS called and to have to submit to interviews and a home evaluation. Some commenters were quick to offer the family sympathy, with one noting they "can’t imagine the trauma all of you went through. I am so happy he is back in mamas arms."
Others argued this was an important learning experience for the family because of the decision to wrap up the toddler.
It was "a strange thing to even think of doing to your child I get why people were concerned but clearly he’s loved …. Lesson Learnt the hard way," one person wrote.
The child has been returned to his parents' care.
In Glembin's most recent video, she explains that her son has been returned to the home and that the CPS case has been closed. She revealed "it was the biggest mistake we ever made as parents and genuinely have had the hardest lesson a parent can face having to go through all of this."
It is unclear from the context if she sees the decision to punish the toddler with physical restraint as the "biggest mistake" or if she has more regret about posting the video of them doing that. It is also unclear if she would have made the choice to wrap him in plastic wrap if she wasn't planning to use that as content to entertain her many followers.
Regardless of her motivation, hopefully this will be an opportunity for Glembin and others who regularly use their young children to generate content to consider the risks of putting so much of their kids' lives online.
