Recently, controversy surrounding TikTok “mommy-blogger” Jacquelyn Paul has resurfaced over her documentation of her five-year-old daughter, Wren Eleanor. Paul’s content initially seems innocuous, sharing Wren’s outfits and clips of her trying new foods. However, many users have shared concerns over Wren’s internet presence and how her mother may be sexually exploiting her.
There is no direct evidence of Paul exploiting Wren, but some of her content showing Wren playing with a tampon or taking a bath in a bathing suit raises alarm bells. As TikTok user @justlivingmyjesslife pointed out even posts of Wren that show her partaking in seemingly appropriate activities show search suggestions such as “Wren Eleanor hotdog” or “Wren Eleanor pickle.” These search suggestions indicate that followers are sexualizing Wren, especially by looking for posts of Wren with phallic objects. One video of Wren crying in front of a bottle of frozen honey being ejected in a phallic manner has over 390,000 saves, and another video of her from 2021 pretending to shave the inside of her legs has over 380,000 saves, both an alarming number compared to other videos on the platform. Both TikToks have over 10 million likes.
The issue with flagging and reporting Paul’s content of Wren is that they are not blatantly explicit and some may not define it as Child Sexual Assault Material, as Minnesota Public Defender Victoria Guillemard stated on her TikTok account. “It’s more the opportunity she’s giving people to turn these videos into CSAM and into actual [Child Porn],” she said. Users calling out Paul are also quick to clarify that they are not calling the content of Wren sexual, but they can easily be edited into sexual acts, something called simulated CP.
It is not uncommon for people to post content of them as children or with children to their social media circles. However, Paul’s TikTok account alone has amassed over 17 million followers and 624 million likes, making it more popular than most users. TikTok also gives content creators the ability to see their followers’ demographics, including gender, age, and other statistics. In a TikTok from 2022, Paul explained that these analytics show that 76.8% of her followers are female, but no other information was given. Public pages like Paul’s receive a lot of attention, garnering reactions left by some users, including inappropriate comments, large numbers of saves, and the types of followers in Wren’s audience.
Instagram fan pages dedicated to Wren have attracted comments made by middle-aged men, with statements including “I would die for your innocent eyes” and “Can you rent me your daughter?” Other posts yield comments such as “Age is just a number right” and “Thats so hot.” In response, Paul turned off her TikTok comments temporarily and made her Instagram account private. Still, many of these fan pages for Wren continue to exist.
The greater issue lies within consent and autonomy for all children, not just Wren, who are posted to the internet by their families for profit. Mommy blogs, family vlogging channels, and other influencer categories that frequently upload every aspect of their child’s life are only endangering them. Even with some benefits of sharing memorable content of one’s child such as exchanging parenting tips or being able to look back on their lives, a five-year-old cannot consent to the upload and distribution of their likeness online, and they are made more vulnerable to personal information being utilized by strangers on the internet.
In a video from 2022 addressing the conspiracy, Paul stated that she conferred with law enforcement agencies including the FBI and they confirmed that there is no proof Wren’s likeness appears on inappropriate websites. She asked anyone to contact her if there is any proof of Wren on such websites. Paul’s response only raised more concerns due to her failure to take preventative action against the collection of CSAM using Wren. Instead, by vowing to protect her child only after she saw CSAM, Paul made Wren even more susceptible to internet predators.
According to the Department of Justice, once “CSAM is posted online, it can be immediately circulated around the globe, traded internationally, and is thus unable to be eradicated. CSAM lives forever, leaving victims to suffer a lifetime of consequences…” Additionally, CSAM is not limited to material circulated online, it can also be saved and stored by abusers, making it harder to identify and report.
Many celebrities choose to conceal their children’s faces on social media to maintain their privacy, an act that parent influencers should be more favorable toward. Limiting access to content of their children is not enough, and for some like Wren, it may be too late to wipe the slate clean. Rather, it is important to call for the safety of these children and urge parents to prevent the spread of material of their child by not posting them online in the first place.
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on April 18, 2024
