YouTuber ISAE reportedly pays minors for humiliating challenges: Is it legal and what can parents do?

Dutch YouTuber ISAE, whose real name is Yasser Ghermaoui, is facing scrutiny for allegedly offering cash prizes to children and teenagers for performing humiliating "challenges" during livestreams. The stakes are high, with potential payouts reaching up to 10,000 euros for acts like shaving eyebrows, drinking dish soap or urine, or urinating in their rooms.

“

The challenges are somewhere in the grey zone, but it absolutely feels wrong.

Human rights professor Sofie Royer described the challenges as being in a "grey zone" but unequivocally "wrong." She highlighted that minors, particularly those aged 13-14, may not be capable of giving genuine consent for such degrading and filmed acts. Royer suggested that the most likely offense could be "humiliating treatment." Furthermore, Belgian privacy laws restrict the processing of personal data for individuals under 13 without parental consent, raising questions about the legality of filming and distributing content featuring younger children.

“

It concerns minors of 13 to 14 years old, whom he also pays. That doesn't seem like an age at which you can truly give permission for such humiliating situations that are filmed and distributed.

Karen Linten, an expert from Mediawijs, pointed to violations of YouTube and TikTok's community guidelines, which prohibit the promotion of dangerous activities. She stressed the responsibility of content creators to adapt their content to their target audience and act as role models, especially when that audience consists primarily of young people. Linten explained that adolescents, in their search for identity, often struggle to assess risks, a tendency amplified by the scale and permanence of online content. The lure of money, she added, can further diminish their capacity to consider consequences.

“

If you are younger than 13 years old, you cannot simply give permission for the processing of personal data. So if it concerned children younger than 13, he may not film them and put them online without the permission of their parents.

Both experts agree that while the final determination of illegality rests with a judge, the practice raises significant ethical and legal concerns. Linten suggested reporting the content for potential removal and emphasized understanding the motivations behind such behavior, noting that while adolescent risk-taking is not new, its scale and reach have dramatically increased in the digital age.

“

They clearly violate some of those guidelines.