At seven years old, Isabelle is a budding online content creator. She holds a bag of potato chips, kicks off the video recording, introduces the price and ingredients, and ends with a taste test, describing it as an “explosion of flavour” in front of her classmates and teacher. Johan Ooi, co-founder and public speaking instructor of Johan Speaking Academy, comments on her pretending, “She’s pretending because her mum doesn’t want her to eat too many snacks during class.” As much as parents want to feel like they should be teaching their children, they should also be open to learning from them, says Ooi. — CHAN TAK KONG/The Star.
On a Saturday morning in Kuala Lumpur, Isabelle is one of six students attending a class to learn the art of product reviews. Johan noticed a growing interest among students in becoming content creators and decided to incorporate product reviews into his public speaking class modules. Over two months, the students, ranging in age from six to 12 years old, will gather on weekends to learn the fundamentals of content creation, including devices for vlogging and simple tools for editing.
At KL-based Kidocode, its YouTube Engineering course has been attracting about 20 to 30 students each week since it was introduced in 2019. Founder Hossein Tohidi says that the beginner level, which covers idea generation, recording equipment setup, and content promotion, may require up to 50 hours to complete. The students will learn how to conduct research, use AI tools like ChatGPT, verify information, and create engaging content. They will also learn sound editing, digital animation, and video editing to further broaden their skill set.
Hossein emphasizes that the students must learn the creator economy and the importance of KPIs to measure the success of their content. Mathematics and coding will also be incorporated into the lessons. “It’s important that we help the students understand how to create engaging content. They need to establish KPIs to measure the success of their content,” he says. Parents have approached Nur Atiqah Ahmad, CEO and co-founder of Creative Sandbox, for advice on helping their kids become content creators or developing more content. At her creative multimedia and digital arts academy, Nur Atiqah offers a range of classes catered to children interested in learning content creation, including the four-day Digital Creator Intensive program usually held during school holidays.
In recent years, young individuals have increasingly viewed the idea of online content creation as a viable career path. A survey in 2019 of 3,000 kids in the United States aged between eight and 12 found that 29% preferred becoming vloggers or YouTubers over other career options such as teacher, professional athlete, musician, or astronaut. In March, the USCI Poll Research Centre conducted a study involving 1,000 SPM leavers aged between 18 and 20 years old to discover their future plans. The study found that nearly half of the respondents were not interested in furthering their education after SPM. Of the 490 students, a majority or 34%, wanted to pursue a career as a social media affiliate or influencer.
However, it doesn’t take the kids long to realize that it may not be all fun and games. “Initially, they find shooting fun. But eventually, the kids find out on their own that being a content creator is not as easy as it looks,” Ooi says. The children, he says, mostly found editing to be challenging as they needed to spend more time adding transitions and subtitles. Some couldn’t complete the work due to their parents allowing them limited screen time at home.
