Albert Verlinde is sickened by the latest vlog in which the controversial Bellinga family walks through a South African slum. They act like it’s an attraction. “It’s a bit like monkey watching.”
There has been a lot of criticism for some time about family vloggers like the Bellinga’s, who actively use their children to generate money. The Bellingas are currently traveling around the world and their children are being taught at home. In their latest vlog, we see the family walking through a slum in South Africa, making some rather inappropriate comments.
‘Not shy or anything’
Fara Bellinga, the mother of the house, pretends it is some kind of attraction. “So we are now walking through the alley with the children. They are all following our children. They find it very interesting. Super cute. They hold hands, they sit next to each other and they gave a hug.”
One of the Bellinga children then says about the black children: “They are very sweet. Not shy or anything.”
Fara: “No, they are not shy at all. That’s nice to see.”
Curious
Albert Verlinde cannot look at it. “That family is of course already a remarkable family, right, with that revenue model of simply exploiting your children with the vlogs they make. This is such a low point. I don’t know who has ever been to South Africa… I was able and had to experience it,” he says in RTL Tonight.
He continues: “I first spoke to Desmond Tutu there and then walked around there. It is good that you bring children to show it, but to tell a story about what life is like there and not to treat it as some kind of tourist attraction.”
Watching monkeys
Saskia Belleman gets an uncomfortable feeling about it. “It’s a bit like monkey watching.”
Albert: “Yes, I really think it’s terrible to see that. I thought this afternoon when I saw this: those people are used to child labor, but I can’t say that. In fact, of course it is what it is, because they are under tremendous fire. There is a child labor law in the Netherlands. I often have to deal with that, even as a musical producer.”
Twenty times
Children are only allowed to work twenty times a year, Albert explains. “If they give an interview at the Jeugdjournaal, it already counts as one hour. There must also be a supervisor, but with such a vlog series you can earn money with your children without supervision.”
He continues: “The Labor Inspectorate is looking into whether this needs to be addressed, but I think they should include this in the file.”
Racism
It also makes host Beau van Erven Dorens feel sick. “Also the relentless racism that is in it. They could have cut it out and they didn’t.”
Albert concludes: “They have built such a world of their own, they don’t even see it. Sometimes you really hope that when people see the reactions they think: oh, they are right, we shouldn’t do this.”
