
When Vicki’s daughter Georgia was 13, she began her own YouTube channel in 2013.
She began posting comedy videos about what she describes as “relatable aspects of everyday life” and now has over 500,000 subscribers to her channel Georgia Productions.
And understandably, it initially caused concerns for her parents.
“Both my husband and I were concerned about her safety and vulnerability being in a public forum at such a young age,” Vicki told Mamamia.
“We knew that once you put yourself online, you are open to other people’s negativity and scrutiny. When people are anonymous they can be cruel, opinionated and inappropriate.
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“Georgia was a very innocent and naive girl, our concern was that she would encounter via comments people that just wanted to upset her and put her down.”
With this understanding and with countless reports of online bullying, trolling and accusations directed at social media influencers, most recently demonstrated by the James Charles scandal, Georgia’s parents were wary, but she wasn’t.
“I was quite oblivious to the dangers of the online world,” Georgia told Mamamia.
“Fortunately, my parents guided and supported me on how to manage the unfavourable or hostile viewer feedback. They still help by previewing all my content before it’s published to YouTube.”
Vicki explained that Georgia was quick to tell her parents if there was anything in the comments that was negative or hurtful.
“If this did happen we had procedures in place to deal with it. The first and foremost was not to respond, then delete, and if if anything serious, block and report,” Vicki said.