Filming “domestics antics”, as they call it, is now a thing – and many parents are coining it in the process.

The “Eh Bee Family‘ is just one example of these mega successful YouTube channels, with around three million subscribers.

After a recent incident which involved another YouTube-famous family, TIME went in to investigate the psychological effects this constant documentation has on the children.

Here’s a little introduction into the phenomenon:

Vlogging—the frequent recording and uploading of personal videos, usually on YouTube—has become a big business, or rather a sea of businesses, with operators as small as one person and as large as a massive production company.

And family vlogging is the ultimate family business: you literally get paid for raising your kids.

The more fun a family has, the more viewers and, ergo, money they get. Popular clans can attract sponsorship, advertising and, at the very least, a lot of free stuff to play with on camera. Brands seeking a PG-rated YouTube outlet have flocked to family vloggers like the Mormon-raised Butlers, who now live on a huge property, complete with a studio and horses, in Idaho. YouTube metrics firms estimate that the Shaytards channel brings in anything from $2,000 to $38,000 every month just in ad revenue.

Check out this winner from the Butlers with 23 777 056 views and counting:

Who the f*ck watches this shite? Well, YouTube says that time spent watching family vloggers is up 90% in the past year.

But what are the effects on children? According to TIME, child psychologists say that most kids are “very resilient and can adapt to the circumstances in which they are brought up, including fame, but they warn that there are danger areas in family vlogging”.

“All children want to please their parents,” says Harold Koplewicz, a psychiatrist and head of the Child Mind Institute. “We trust the caretakers in our lives that they’re looking out for us. If they’re not, it makes us very anxious and uncomfortable.” As they grow into adolescence, he adds, kids need some privacy to be able to make mistakes, and they need parents who are their protectors, not their employers.

Some vloggers are well aware of the dangers. “No one knows what the implications [of family vlogging] will be in the future,” says Rossana Burgos, matriarch of the mega­successful Eh Bee Family channel. “And so for us, every single step, we think, How is this going to affect [our kids] in 15 years?”

The family has tried to conceal their two kids’ real names, calling them Miss Monkey and Mr. Monkey online, but they get recognized almost everywhere they go. They also don’t work every day. “We don’t think putting up videos every day is a good idea, especially when you have children involved,” Burgos says.

It all just sounds a little ridiculous to me.

TIME made a little clip on the whole thang, including the extremely abusive video that caused Mike and Heather Martin of DaddyOFive to lose custody of two of their children. Check it:

Still keen to do a daily blog about your famdam? Well, it really isn’t all that. Other than the consequences of the DaddyOFive clan, check this scandal:

In February, Butler, who had previously said he would leave YouTube in March, abruptly stopped vlogging. A “webcam girl” by the name of Aria Nina released an explicit series of direct Twitter messages the father of five had sent her over the course of a few months. Then Butler announced that he was struggling with alcoholism and needed to rehabilitate. “It’s been impossible to keep up this perfect ‘happiness is a choice’ mentality,” he wrote on Twitter.

Since then, Shaytards has gone silent.

Mormons, huh?

But here are some closing thoughts from Missy Lanning [that image right up top], a mother of two and the matriarch of Daily Bumps:

Because we daily vlog, we have chosen to live our life to the fullest, and it’s awesome.

I’m out.

[source:time]