Collin Gosselin was forced to appear on his mother’s reality TV shows from the age of three until 11– and now, at 22, says he’s made it his mission to put a stop to kids being put in similar situations.
During an appearance on Candace Cameron‘s podcast this week, Collin spoke passionately about the cost of putting kids on reality TV or making money off them on social media accounts.
“I’ve always said this and I will continue to say this: it is not your children’s responsibility to bring income into the family and put food on the table,” Collin said. “That’s the parents’ responsibility. So why are you using your children as your financial safety net? …why are they your [source] of income?
“Simply put, children are not your meal ticket. And parents need to understand this.”
As fans are aware, Collin starred with his parents and seven siblings on ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ and later ‘Kate Plus 8.’ He stopped appearing on his mom Kate‘s show at age 11, when she shipped him off to a residential treatment center. Collin recently released a tell-all book about his childhood and the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of his mom. He pointed out that his book is dedicated to adults “to be the responsible ones to say, ‘We need to put a stop to this.'”
Collin said wants advocate for kids whose parents put them on TV or use them for likes on social media.
“I’ve made it my excuse to use my voice to change what possibly may happen to other children in this industry… I want to advocate for other kids,” he said. “I want to make sure that, no matter what happens, they don’t go through the same things I went through.”
Collin told Candace— with whom he starred on ‘Special Forces’ Season 5— that his first memories are of cameras being in his house.
“The scariest part as a young kid was not having that say in [being on TV or not],” Collin said. “You’re so young and then the first thing you ever know is, like, cameras and lights and you’re a performer from the first point of consciousness. You’re there to perform and it’s weird because there’s this dynamic of ‘My value to my family is my performance’, right?
“That choice…is a big thing because, like I said, I didn’t choose any of it.”
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Candace— who began acting at the age of five— said she was very much in control of her acting career and wanted to perform, unlike Collin who had it thrust upon him by his parents.
“You didn’t have that choice. You were thrown onto reality TV with your family, cameras everywhere in your living room,” she said.
Collin stated that child reality stars eventually realize that they have to give their parents/the show’s producers what they want.
“Over time, there’s like this dynamic where it’s like, ‘I really do have to perform; I have to change things… They don’t want me to say it this way, they want me to say it that way,'” he said. “As an adult, that’s OK but as a kid, that’s weird because you’re like, ‘Why can’t I just be a kid? Why can’t I just go and play with Legos?”
Collin stated that he eventually did speak up– around the age of eight— and told his mom Kate that he didn’t want to film for the show anymore.
“For a long time [me not filming] wasn’t an option and it was a really scary thought for me to even think of letting those words come out of my mouth,” Collin said. “There was a point where those words came out of my mouth and, like, the second I said them I was like, ‘Oh crap, that is probably the most ballsy thing I’ve ever done.'”
The 22-year-old says it makes him sad to think about the kids of reality TV stars and/or social media influencers who may want to live a normal life without cameras but can’t.
“I think about children that are being forced to go and portray someone they’re not in front of a camera, on social media, reality TV. I mean, TLC is a big one and there’s so much of that nowadays,” he said.
Collin said that, whenever he speaks up about getting kids off TV or social media, people will comment that he’s looking “for the spotlight,” something he insists isn’t true.
“I’ve had the spotlight. I had a spotlight on me I didn’t want as a kid,” he said.
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“…I can’t be quiet about [kids on reality TV],” he told Candace later in the podcast episode. “I can’t stop. If I want to just sit and not talk about this, I just think about the kid who told his mom— who was scared beyond belief, I mean the most fear I’ve probably had in my entire life— to say, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’
“But there’s kids doing that. There’s kids that are afraid to say that to their own parents. And that’s the crazy part.”
Collin said that, because he was a kid during the earliest days of reality TV, he can understand what other child reality TV stars/influencers may be going through today.
“There’s so many kids being thrown on social media, being thrown in front of cameras. Who’s to protect them?” he said. “Who can voice that better than somebody who’s gone through it?”
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When asked if he thinks the laws should be changed regarding using kids on your social media, Collin gave a very passionate yes.
“It can’t be healthy for a child to understand that this is their reality,” he said. “That their reality is just cameras and that their worth is drawn from how they can perform for their parents.
Collin then slammed influencers who use their kids to grow their social media following and/or make money.
“…I see so many social media accounts where it’s like, without your child, you wouldn’t really have a social media presence,” he continued. “And then I look at it from the other side and it’s like, that’s horrible. How do you not see that as a parent? How do you not understand that you’re making all this money off the back of your child? Is that not ringing any alarm bells?”
Candace agreed, adding that the money is more important to these parents, “although I don’t think they would ever admit that.”
Collin said he hopes his book will encourage kids in similar situations to his to find their voice. In addition, he wants adults to realize the harm that can come from putting their kids in the public eye for profit.
“The message of [my] book is to protect children,” he said. “It’s not for me, it’s not for my story. It’s for all the other stories and moments and children out there that don’t have a voice . I’ve said this before— I had all these people surrounding me as a kid… there were cameras. There were people there… but there was nobody around to be able to say, ‘I see, I hear. We can put a stop to this,’ right? Nobody did that for me.
“But for me having this platform and the ability to write a book and to use that and to put out that message, I’m very fortunate.”
You can watch Collin’s full interview with Candace below.
RELATED STORY: Collin Gosselin Sends Message to Estranged Mom Kate After She Gives More Alleged Details About Him Killing Birds As a Kid
(Photos: YouTube; Instagram: TLC)
