From Documentation to Profit: Parents' Stories of Managing Child Content and the Challenges

BEKASI – Family moments that were once simply saved to mobile phone galleries are increasingly being shared on social media. For some parents, this practice began with a simple desire to document their child’s early years, but has evolved to open up new opportunities, including collaborations with various brands. This phenomenon demonstrates a shift in social media’s function from merely a space for sharing to a potential source of income based on emotional connection with audiences.

One example comes from a couple of parents, Brian Andrew Salim (27) and Nuzulia Muchtari (27), who manage a child content account called “Arkeen Daily”. The account features the daily activities of their child, Arkeenan Nuzrian Salim (4). Initially, the content was simply basic documentation. However, over time, the content attracted the attention of many social media users and caught the interest of various brands.

At first, some family members questioned the benefit of the activity, particularly because it involved a child in digital content production. “At the beginning, we were doubtful about what was the point of making content like that, whether there was really any return on it, whether it could actually generate income with parents—we thought children shouldn’t be used like that (as content),” he said when met in Bekasi on Sunday (15 March 2026).

However, over time, that perspective changed after the family saw opportunities for income and collaborations with brands that had good reputations. “We were able to prove it—once we saw there was income, lots of brands started coming in, and these weren’t just any brands coming in. Parents became supportive too,” he said.

As the number of viewers increased, various brands became interested in collaborating with Arkeen Daily. Brian believed this was driven by the unique concept of the content. According to him, content featuring small children cooking is still relatively rare on social media, so it has its own appeal.

In practice, they also made efforts to adapt the content concept to the products being promoted, including combining story elements to keep it relevant. “We made cat food for cooking, made breakfasting meals for cats to distribute using a bicycle, so we used the bicycle from the promotion to distribute it to stray cats. So even though the brand doesn’t match our food, we’ll still adapt to it,” he said.