Wren Eleanor: The Darkest Side Of Parenting TikTok
A four-year-old has no idea she's being exploited. How can she make a sound?
Viacheslav Lopatin | Shutterstock, txking | Canva Editor's Note: This is a part of YourTango's Opinion section where individual authors can provide varying perspectives for wide-ranging political, social, and personal commentary on issues.
Parent vloggers are already coming under fire after the whole Ruby Franke and Family of 5 ordeals. There have been so many cases where parents simply abused their children for social media views. As YouTube and Instagram started cracking down on parents who exploited their kids’ tears for profit, people breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, something is being done about these horrible parents — right? Well, yes. Government workers have finally started to turn their attention to the alarming parenting moves of these content creators. However, there’s one “influencer” genre that hasn’t gotten that level of flack — and they absolutely should.
I recently watched a YouTube video by iNabber, an online web culture journalist. It was titled “TikTok’s Worst Mom Is Still Exploiting Her Child For Profit,” and I first thought it was Ruby Franke. It took me a moment to realize that the woman in the thumbnail is NOT Ruby — because, you know, facial blindness. What the video was about shocked me.
It was titled “TikTok’s Worst Mom Is Still Exploiting Her Child For Profit,” and I first thought it was Ruby Franke. It took me a moment to realize that the woman in the thumbnail is not Ruby. What the video was about shocked me.
The video was calling out the very alarming account of Wren Eleanor — a four-year-old's account managed by her mother. Her mother mostly posts videos of her and some of them are alarming. Most of the videos are of Wren’s hair and clothing choices, coupled with silly videos. That alone raises an eyebrow because the girl is four years old and can’t consent to this crap. For example, the young girl has videos of her eating corndogs, eating hot dogs, and sucking on pickles. The comments left on these videos are what make this creepy: it’s usually older men talking about how “beautiful” she is or making kissy emojis.
The account currently has 17.3 million fans. If this strikes you as creepy, that’s because it is.
It’s very telling that the majority of Wren’s followers are not moms or other kids, but adult men who have no children of their own. Many of the comments are very alarming. Some of these men have admitted to printing out photos of this 4-year-old to post all over their bedrooms. Others have pledged to “send her a gift again soon.”
As someone who has worked in porn journalism, I’ll be blunt: a lot of these comments are mirror-identical to the way men talk about their favorite cam model. Do you see the problem yet? They’re treating this four-year-old like a 22-year-old performer.
In porn, it’s common knowledge that some obsessive fans will go so far as to stalk and even murder their favorite stars. Don’t believe it? Jesse Jane (rest in peace) had a fan pull a knife on her because he was a psychotic fan. Adults have a better chance of surviving an attack. A four-year-old? Not so much. I’m not mincing words when I say this account is putting this girl’s life in danger.
This reminds me of pedophilia-adjacent and porn-adjacent content made by adult performers. I should explain what this means. Pedophila-adjacent doesn’t harm the exploitation of kids, but it’s a term used by performers who note that certain performers tend to “play up” a childlike side of things. It’s also called “pedo pandering.”
One name that keeps coming up as pedophilia-adjacent is a name you might already know: Belle Delphine. Belle is now in her early 20s, but she looks acts, and dresses like an underage kid. This is by design. This is her marketing shtick, and a lot of men are all about it. What she is doing is not illegal by any means. She’s an adult, and if that’s her thing, okay, she’s in her right to do so. There are kinks related to it, such as ageplay.
Here’s the thing: these performers are catering to a fetish or a taste for younger teens. But, they’re doing it legally and consensually. They all know what’s up so there is a certain level of kosherness to what they’re doing. It still skeeves me out, but at the same time, I also recognize that some women are just built very childlike and it’s not fair to ban them from porn. It’s one of those parts of the industry that I genuinely don’t know what to think about or do. It’s a nuanced problem. But even among porn performers, it raises an eyebrow and even icks some people right out.
What’s going on with Wren is very, very similar but should NOT be legal.
Now that we explained pedophilia-adjacent content, let’s talk about porn-adjacent content. This is technically G-rated but doesn’t feel G-rated. What’s going on with Wren is both pedo-adjacent and porn-adjacent. When you watch this content, you get sexual undertones and It can even cross into fetish content at times. These are videos that might include things like a girl eating a lollipop suggestively or a video focusing on a girl’s feet/
Wren’s TikTok is fully clothed. It is not showing anything illegal, per se. It’s not involving overt sexual abuse. However, a lot of the videos involve this kid doing things that OnlyFans models do as part of their porn-adjacent advertising — and her audience knows it. That’s why a lot of those videos have an alarming amount of saves. There is no normal reason why a video of a four-year-old eating a corndog should have over 100,000 saves on TikTok. There is also no feasible way for that kid to be capable of consent — especially not informed consent.
It’s not just adults being involved here. It’s a child. So, unlike Belle, this is pedophile baiting that involves kids. While it’s not officially illegal, it doesn’t have to be to do serious damage. And yes, in my opinion, this kid is being sexually exploited.
As a person who was trafficked, I’ve seen stuff like this before, and it’s not good. Horrible things happen to those of us who were exploited this way. Wren’s mom also claimed to have spoken to the FBI and said they found no photos of her kid on the dark web. I don’t believe that at all. That doesn’t sound like how the FBI works. I do know that Wren is not the only child to have this happen to her.
An independent study showed that Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) has been knowingly allowing parents to sexually exploit their children for money using their subscription models. There are other victims. And yes, even if the kids don’t know they are victims, they are victims. This is a growing problem that needs to be stopped right now.
I don't know if the FBI currently has an investigation pending on this girl’s mom. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they did. And if they did, they wouldn’t tell her until they were way in and about to raid. What I would suggest is that my readers raise awareness of this type of exploitation. If you see something sketchy, report it to both the authorities and the platform. You never know what they might uncover. When there’s smoke, there’s often fire.
Sexual abuse of children and minors is incredibly common.
According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 have experienced sexual abuse from an adult. Girls are far more likely to be victims of sexual abuse; the organization reports that 82% of all victims under 18 are female, and those who do suffer from assault and abuse are more likely to also develop mental health issues like depression, PTSD, and drug abuse.
There are ways to help child abuse victims.
Want to get involved to bring an end to child sexual abuse? There are a few things you can do. There are organizations like Prevent Child Abuse America that are good places to start and that are always looking for people to donate their time and money to their efforts. The organization also suggests writing to local elected officials to support policies that bring an end to sexual abuse, and of course, the simplest thing to do is to keep eyes and ears open and to report abuse when you see it — and to always take children seriously when they say they're being abused.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a writer based out of Red Bank, New Jersey whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Daily Dish, New Theory Magazine, and others.