Yanfry, the boy to whom they returned ‘influencer’ and their story not told

The protagonist of this story turned four recently, on December 21st.

His name is Yanfry Díaz Quiñones and if it weren't for the media exposure he has received in recent weeks, he would be just another child from Chocó: a child born in the poorest and most abandoned territory of Colombia.

The first person who made Yanfry known was his uncle Bernardo Díaz through his TikTok account (@venao2323) in which, thanks to his nephew's fame, he already has more than 2.5 million followers.

Yanfry rose to fame just four weeks ago, on November 23rd, long before he was made an influencer and brands like Netflix hired him for a Christmas campaign.

The video shows the boy walking through the streets of Istmina —the town where he was born into a home with a father who works in a gold mine in Barbacoas (Nariño) and with a mother who earns a living as an employee domestic- impeccably wearing the kindergarten uniform 'Tender smiles'.

A cute and charismatic black boy who also stands out for his height. Later it will be known that he measures only 77 centimeters despite the fact that he is already four years old, which shows a delay in his growth. The minor suffers from two diseases that seriously compromise his health.

—Hey Yanfry, why are you walking around like that all pretty, man?, the uncle asks. —Because yes, he answers with a low voice. -Like what? -Like a man! "And how do men walk?" "Just as I walk," the child ends. And nothing more.

The video went viral thanks to the sympathy it aroused. Today it has more than 5.8 million views. An excessive exhibition that has been applauded by many and criticized by many others, and which was analyzed by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (Icbf), headed by the general director, Lina Arbeláez.

“​​Overexposing children and adolescents on the Internet violates their rights to intimacy, privacy and integrity. When a photo or video is uploaded to social networks, that content can be used maliciously, leaving them exposed to cyberbullying, hate speech, humiliation, violence, and sexual exploitation," reports the entity, which cites rigorous studies such as Child Online Safety. Index and the World Economic Forum (2020), which established that 60 percent of girls and boys experience digital risks.

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“The experience of such situations has been associated with a greater probability of developing anxiety, depression and adjustment disorders, which in a child of Yanfry's age can be expressed through difficulties in sleeping and eating, loss of of interest, irritability, fear”, adds the entity.

Memes and photomontages didn't take long. The stickers with the figure of Yanfry rotated through WhatsApp. And so, a four-year-old boy fell into that world that is almost always so toxic and superficial, accustomed to building clay idols that melt after 15 minutes: that of social networks.

Shortly after the first video was released, the boy already had his official Instagram account (@yanfryeltiernooficial), which in less than a month already had more than 560,000 followers.

Yes: the numbers of the Yanfry networks are astronomical. Soon after, he was interviewed on national radio. And days later, Uncle Bernardo published videos of the flight on a plane to Bogotá. He, Yanfry and Tatiana, his mother, were there.

Yanfry could then be seen on a major variety show on TV. Several media outlets recorded her visit. We saw him visiting a Police school and posing with famous 'influencers' like 'El Mindo'.

But he returned to real life: to that town with dirt streets 75 kilometers from Quibdó, the capital, where a large part of its 25,000 inhabitants consider him a celebrity. And where he continues to receive attention and privileges.

We've seen him wearing fine clothes, sunglasses, toys, gold chains, and mentioning —in his tangled four-year-old voice— the names of the brands they advertised for him to advertise for them.

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We also saw him in a luxurious hotel in Cali, with his uncle and his mother. “We are waiting for you,” said the boy, lying on the pompous bed. We saw a publication in which he was celebrating his four years and with a message inviting him to make contributions to improve his quality of life and that of his family.

Uncle Bernardo is Yanfry's manager. He was a construction assistant but now he is dedicated to recording the videos of his nephew. “It is wonderful what is happening with us. I have to be aware of the cell phone early, because they want to do interviews with him, they ask for greetings”, says Bernardo with optimism. And he clarifies that since Yanfry began to become famous he has not returned to work in construction, because he does not have time.

“Yanfry has a Nequi account (it is highlighted on Instagram with the word 'Donations'). But that money, she affirms, nobody touches. "That's what he needs, to take care of his health," clarifies the man, who has been suffering from heartburn —perhaps gastritis, he thinks— but hasn't gone to the hospital because he doesn't even have Sisbén.

Uncle Bernardo wanted to be a soccer player. They know him in Istmina for his talent with the ball. But as soon as he reached the tenth grade of high school, he had to leave school to start working washing motorcycles. His dreams now revolve around Yanfry. The dreams of his entire family.

“I hope that people never stop loving him because that would be very hard,” says Bernardo and warns that there are many people who are taking advantage of his nephew to commit scams. And he is right: on Instagram there are more than 50 accounts that bear the boy's name and that replicate his photos and videos and even offer advertising.

The author of this story wrote to one of those accounts —which has a photomontage of Yanfry as if he were the president of Colombia, with the national tricolor ribbon running through a black blazer; an account in which they also sell keratins—and they replied that the fee for two days of advertising was 100,000 Colombian pesos for already published videos. That if he wanted an exclusive video the costs would increase.

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It's not a fairy tale

Tatiana Quiñones is the boy's mother. She is 28 years old, she was born in Cali, she came to Istmina nine years ago because she fell in love with Jesús, the father of her son; She is a technician in 'Early Childhood Care', but she has never gotten a job in that field and that is why she must earn a living working in family homes: a job that she inherited from her mother and that she has been doing since she was a teenager.

The woman says that a digital marketing agency contacted Uncle Bernardo and that's when the trip came to an end: they were taken by car to Quibdó and then by plane to Bogotá and put up at a very good hotel in the north of the city.

“We have to work very hard because, if we don't work, we don't eat”, complains the woman, mother of another daughter, Yasbleidy, 12 years old.

But this is not a fairy tale. Yanfry suffers from two delicate illnesses. One: hypothyroidism: his hormones don't work well and that's why he's the height of a year and a half. Two: hypoglycemia.

“We took him to the doctor in Cali —a land trip of more than ten hours— because his teeth hurt a lot, his teeth were damaged and he had a low blood sugar and we had to hospitalize him for two months. His sugar would rise and he would convulse ”.

Tatiana points out that the EPS caught up with the medications that it must give daily after talking about these hardships on national television.

And of course, say thank you for the dinosaurs and other toys your child has been given. For the clothes. In a video, the boy is seen running through the puddles of his town to get into a stunning red electric car with a convertible top.

Sebastián Forero is the director of LID, the digital marketing company that has promoted his role as an influencer and that took him to Bogotá and managed the interviews in the media.

Of course: he knows all the risks to which the child is exposed — “like all the children who appear on television and in the movies” — but he assures that his intentions and those of his team are good. And he clarifies that before his agency, others had already contacted Uncle Bernardo.

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“The important thing is that the kid has incredible reach, an overnight popularity. We are a bridge between brands and influencers”, continues Forero.

He reiterates that there is no merely commercial interest and that what they seek is to promote a child who, through his media power, can improve the living conditions of him and his family and show the social realities of Istmina.

And he adds that his job is to advise the family so that they don't let themselves be scammed and don't advertise anything. So that they organize themselves legally.

Samples of the good work of his agency —he clarifies— are the toys and gifts that a children's clothing brand gave to many children in the town. The same mark that gave Yanfry the stunning red car.

“It can be a quarter of an hour and in a few days or weeks or months it becomes landscape. They have the opportunity to go beyond momentary fame”, considers Daniel Vivas, president of Brandmen, a renowned digital marketing agency.

“They must be linked to a foundation or social project and know how to manage their account very well, because the day it stops receiving so much attention, it could collapse”, continues the expert, clarifying that if this happens to adults, what will it be like? in a child.

A report from the portal www.humanium.org, from February 2021, entitled 'Children influencers and social networks: the evolution of child exploitation in the digital age', not only makes clear the violation of rights. He reports that this industry generates up to $26 million a year through advertising.

“The dark cloud that hangs over this new phenomenon is the fact that parents simultaneously have the power to benefit from their children's participation in this commercial activity, but also the responsibility to protect their human rights,” quotes the article.

Daniel Vivas classifies Yanfry as a digital star. “He is a charismatic, versatile boy. That may be your talent. If it weren't for him, the country would not have received the lesson of having to look towards those poor and forgotten regions”, continues the expert, who also agrees that the child is being overexploited.

The violation of rights

Carolina Piñeros, executive director of Red Papaz, is emphatic in stating that this is an obvious case of child exploitation. And although she acknowledges that it has been an opportunity for the family to improve their quality of life, she warns that the child must be thought of first.

"It is not a gold mine: it is a child. And they have no right to exploit it because it is a family with economic problems. What is the Icbf doing? What will happen when it stops being famous, which is a high possibility with these figures from social networks?”, questions the expert.

Warns that the child may see the free development of his personality limited and will bear the consequences of disclosing its contents for life.

“All this, due to decisions that the rest of us made about him: “His uncle who published the video, the users who shared it, the media that reported on the event, the companies that invited him and his family to Bogotá and gave them gifts —and incidentally, they took the opportunity to advertise—, as well as the social networks that benefited from the traffic generated by this content.”

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The child and his family, of course, need psychological support from the State, through the Icbf. But Uncle Bernardo acknowledges that the entity has not contacted them.

And what would happen if he wasn't a black boy from a poor family in Chocó and was a high-class boy from Bogota? "Surely, because they are a family with different educational and social conditions, they would be more aware of the risks that the child faces and would have easier access to psychological support," answers Piñeros, convinced that the economic situation of the family and the social context that surrounding Yanfry tend to generate more interest than the lifestyle of a child who lives without such deprivations.

The child psychiatrist Álvaro Franco clarifies that Yanfry, due to his young age, has a hard time separating fantasy from reality. "He lives it like a fairy tale and he will surely enjoy it, although there will be times when he gets stressed," explains the specialist.

He warns that although it is too early to know the impact on Yanfry's mental and emotional health, there are many studies on children subjected to media exposure who end up with alcohol or psychoactive substance abuse problems, with depression and anxiety.

There are many cases. One of them, that of the Argentine child Mariano Sinitu, who fulfilled the dream inherited from his father: to personally meet the late Diego Armando Maradona.

It happened in 2005. He was 9 years old and already attended the so-called Maradonian Churches and for him, his only God was the famous soccer player. He was a charismatic kid. They invited him to a program presented by Maradona. I hug him. I cry. And then he became some kind of little reporter who was chasing him.

At school his classmates loved him but then they hated him. And even the teachers recriminated him for following a 'false God'. And he didn't understand anything, even though he kept crying.

“I went into depression. They destroyed my life”, said Mariano, who after so much pressure confesses to having developed a bipolar affective disorder.

“Why is there so much screen for Yanfri and not for the children of the Quibdó robotics school? Why hasn't the case been used to talk about the problematic situation of Afro early childhood in Colombia?" reflects the journalist Julián Vivas, a young Afro born in Buenaventura and who is finishing a master's degree in Languages ​​and Representations at the State University. from Santa Cruz (Brazil), with a scholarship from the Organization of American States (OAS).

According to the most recent National Survey of Nutritional Situation (Ensin, 2015), 13 out of every 100 children under 5 years of age in Colombia are affected annually, on average, by malnutrition.

In Chocó, the number of children affected reaches 29 out of 100. The deterioration caused by an inappropriate diet has long-term effects on their physical, intellectual and emotional development, in addition to increasing the risk of illness and death, according to cited the research.

Ángela Anzola del Toro is the president of Fundación Plan, which has been developing social intervention projects in Chocó for several decades; among them, several that have to do with drinking water: a service that only 44 percent of the population has access to according to official figures.

And with no drinking water, this region occupies one of the first places in terms of acute diarrheal diseases in children.

“Yes, Yanfry is very nice, but historically this country has turned its back on the children of Chocó, who are a population group that lives in permanent tragedy”, analyzes the expert.

As we have already seen, the story of Yanfry is not exactly a fairy tale.

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