The Wren TikTok controversy, explained

Social media fame can be intoxicating and addicting, but there’s always a downside, especially if that viral fame includes children. That downside can be easily illustrated by the case of Wren Eleanor, a massively popular TikTok personality with over 17 million followers.

Wren is a toddler, and her mother Jacquelyn runs the account. The problem is that Wren is the subject of millions of creepy comments and weird search suggestions, and some are suggesting her mother may be putting her in danger.

Wren’s videos routinely get millions of views. It’s pretty innocuous stuff: Mostly just little snippets of silliness, or hair or outfits. That hasn’t stopped people from claiming that Jacquelyn is exploiting her daughter. One TikTok user found strange search suggestions when rifling through the profile, like “Wren Eleanor hotdog” or “Wren Eleanor pickle.” These searches are incredibly inappropriate in a specific context.

The whole thing has inspired a number of mothers to stop sharing videos of their children online. Makayla Musick, a mother and social media personality, said the whole Wren situation had her “absolutely appalled” and she realized that she had to do more to “protect” her daughter.

“Wren’s story brought a lot of light to all the sick people in the world,” she said. “So, I decided to remove my own daughter’s photos from anyone who is not close family/close friends. My duty as her mother is to protect her from things like this. I took the initiative to remove her photos before anything like Wren’s situation could happen to my own daughter.”

Callahan Walsh, the executive director of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), told the New York Post that social media gives parents a false sense of security, because most of their interactions can be positive. They might not realize that when they post their children online they are “opening up” their personal life to “the entire outside world.”

Online predators, Walsh said, search for content that most users won’t think is harmful because they don’t “go directly to that dark place.” Predators search out accounts of minors and can attempt to coerce them into sharing more and more explicit photos. Walsh explained what that would look like:

“It may start with taking a shirt off, you know, some article of clothing. But once that predator has that child and says, ‘Hey, look, I’ve saved this image, I’m going to share it with all your friends, all your family. I’m going to ruin you, embarrass you at school. Your parents are going to hate you. Nobody’s going to be your friend anymore unless you send me…this image of you doing X, Y and Z.’”

Children then get “locked in to the situation” and live in fear of being exposed and embarrassed, Walsh said, so they will comply. As for Wren, her mother has turned off commenting on her videos.