A YouTuber, social media influencer, and family vlogger has been canceled — for a second time — over video footage resurfacing that shows her admitting she wasn't going through with a planned adoption after finding out she couldn’t post videos and photos of the child online for one year. Nikki Phillippi has over a million subscribers on YouTube where she shares lifestyle and family content, along with her husband and toddler. Nikki and Dan Phillippi were going to adopt a child from Thailand, but not being able to feature that child in their online content was apparently a dealbreaker for the couple.
This all originally went down a few years ago, but recently, a TikTok account that posts influencer controversies shared a short clip of the video and that video has now received over 5 million views and also gone viral on Twitter. That TikTok creator wants to call attention to and raise concerns about influencer culture and young children being used as a source of income by their parents and family.
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The video that resurfaced on TikTok was originally shared on YouTube.
The video shared by TikTok account @the_internet_is_foreverr shows a clip of the Phillippis sharing why the adoption wasn’t going to happen anymore. It was originally posted on YouTube in 2018, reported Insider via Yahoo! News.
The text overlay on the caption read, “Nikki Phillippi canceled child adoption because she wouldn’t be able to use the child for content. Does anybody remember this? She still has one million followers on YouTube.” Nikki is then seen and heard explaining why they won’t adopt from Thailand like they planned to.
The YouTuber has yet to offer a new comment on the incident, presumably since this is not the first time she has received backlash online, the outlet reported.
The video also went viral on Twitter, where users called out the couple for 'exploitation.'
Nikki proceeds to explain why they're not adopting in the TikTok video. She says, “We are not adopting from Thailand. We are still adopting. We’re just not adopting from Thailand anymore.” Dan says, “You want to explain why?” Nikki proceeds to explain. “Here’s the situation. Thailand has its own laws that’s unique to it, that after you pick up your child and they’re your child — you are not allowed to talk about them. Or share any images, photos, videos, anything about them online for a year.” Her husband added, "I mean, Nikki's got a YouTube channel, and we share a whole lot."
The video also got reposted on Twitter where it received an additional 12 million views and over 8,000 retweets. Many Twitter users shared the sentiment the user posted alongside the video captioned, “I hate family vloggers so bad."
Another user replied, “If ONE year is too much of a time delay, <without posting a pic of the adopted child, on social media>, then it’s clear they’re adopting for EXPLOITATION. She will continue posting herself on social media but thankfully, without that child as a prop.”
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The video highlights concerns around influencers and child exploitation online and regulations many believe are needed to monitor it.
There have been growing concerns about mom influencers and family vloggers exploiting their children for content and financial benefit before their children are old enough to consent. Chris McCarty, the founder of Quit Clicking Kids is trying to enact legislation that protects kid influencers, reported NPR. Chris pointed out parent influencers are often not thinking of how all the personal information shared about their kids can affect them later in life.
“A lot of personal information does get shared online, and that can include anything from, you know, periods to mental and physical health issues, grades — anything and everything gets shared online,” Chris told NPR. “And I think there's sometimes a lapse in judgment where parents really need to be thinking about — would my kid be OK — in five years or 10 years from now, will they be OK that I shared this information about them online? Will this come back and hurt them later when they're applying to college? Will it come back and hurt them when they're applying for a job?”
Social media users were appalled and called out the influencer couple for using adoption for likes.
Many TikTokers pointed out that family channels and influencers who share their children online and benefit from it financially can be exploitative. And the fact that the couple didn’t go through with the adoption after finding out they couldn't share anything online seemed like they were only doing so for online views and clout.
“Family channels are literally sooooo exploitive," wrote one commenter. "Parents get such a high on the money their kids make for them.”
“That means they didn’t care about the baby," wrote another. "They cared about the views and money."
Others pointed out a year isn’t that long, unless your intentions are bad in the first place.
One user commented: “That’s a rule for a lot of adoptions. U can share photos with friends and fam but not online for the first year. They jus wanna exploit it.”
“Oh my … god?" exclaimed another person. "How do they not realize that law is in place because of people like THEM.”
Nikki doesn't appear to feel bad about any of it.
Nikki evidently still doesn't understand the backlash she received five years ago, let alone the most recent criticism. At one point she posted a video pointing out that she has said and done much more controversial things online and calling the issue with the adoption "ridiculous."
Oh, and it doesn't seem they ever did go through with adopting a child from somewhere other than Thailand, as they said they would.
