If the quote sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’re one of the 94 million people who’ve watched “Charlie Bit Me— Again! ” on YouTube.

In an age when laughing babies and breakdancing toddlers are becoming Internet stars, parents like Jones are finding themselves in unforeseen and unprecedented, though not necessarily unwelcome, circumstances. Three years ago, Jones was just another camera-happy dad who shot videos of his kids for private posterity. Today, “Charlie Bit My Finger” is the fourth most-viewed video on YouTube. According to Jones, it gets around 160,000 hits per day during the week and 250,000 per day over the weekend. That’s the entire population of San Diego watching the video on an average week.

Jones posted the clip in the summer of 2007. With the exception of family and friends, it existed in YouTube anonymity for a good four or five months. “I was close to taking it down because I thought there was little point in keeping it up,” says Jones. “Then what happened is I think it was used on CollegeHumor.com, and suddenly it just went crazy. Pretty much every day after that it was doubling its hits. I think just before the new year, it was a million.”

The adoration for these YouTube toddler videos spans the world. Praise ranges from typical “LOLs” and smiley faces to exalted mini-essays exploring what makes the videos so touching. “[Harry] was so sweet, kind and patient with baby Charlie,” one fan wrote to Jones. “It’s SO funny how we see him putting his finger in harm’s way because his youthful curiosity is just too active to pass on this experiment.”

Nowadays, it’s standard practice for parents to post videos of their children on YouTube. With family and friends spread across state and country lines, online video-sharing is a cheap, easy way to share precious moments with far-flung loved ones.

“Once I realised how to post to YouTube, I posted religiously,” says Shelly Cellak, a Chicago publicist and mother of two. “My mum is in Colorado, my brother lives in Brooklyn and I have a sister in New Hampshire, so I wanted them to be able to get to know the kids.”

The only people who look at Cellak’s videos are those in her inner circle, but what if one of her clips were to suddenly become the next viral sensation? “It wouldn’t be a big deal,” Cellak says. “We’d probably take it in stride and have fun with it. Everything I put up there is something I’m comfortable with everyone seeing.”

Not all parents feel the same way as Cellak. While the advent of YouTube and similar video-sharing sites is a blessing to many, it raises red flags to parents who are leery of posting private videos in public forums.

Adam Slesinger, a father of two based in Rhode Island, says he cringes when people post images of their kids on YouTube and Facebook. “I believe those moments should be shared with a family only,” he says. “It shouldn’t be a public thing.” Though he doesn’t like to dictate what other parents ought or ought not do, he did start a website, MyBabyPlace, where parents can post secure home videos. His is one of numerous similar sites, such as Totsites and Famoodle, that offer family-friendly privacy settings.

For the record, YouTube does have privacy settings, but it requires viewers to sign in. In addition, you must list e-mails of the people (twenty-five maximum) who are permitted to view the video. To many parents, the process is too cumbersome and defeats the purpose of YouTube’s hassle-free appeal.

Cellak and her husband have no qualms about posting their videos for all to see, but they have developed an unspoken set of rules. For example, no nudity, partial or full, shall appear online. Other parents lay down different rules, such as no posting of photos or video until the child is old enough to approve, or no mentioning of kids’ names on the Internet.

Rules or no rules, some detractors go so far as to say that YouTube child stars are victims of exploitation. David DeVore, an Orlando real estate agent, is all too familiar with these naysayers.

A year ago, DeVore videotaped his seven-year-old son’s trip to the dentist — it was for his wife, who was unable to be there that day. His son, also named David, was getting his tooth extracted, a procedure that required anesthetics. Afterwards, David, still anesthetised, started spouting loopy lines. “Is this real life?” he asks his father in the video. “You have four eyes.” “Why is this happening to me?” “Is this gonna be forever?”

Eventually, DeVore posted the video to YouTube so that his family and friends, who’d been asking to see the clip, could watch. This was Friday, January 30. By Sunday night, the video had spiked to about 10,000 views. By Tuesday, it skyrocketed to three million and by Wednesday it had become one of the year’s first viral home video hits. Something about David’s precocious, existential inquiries struck a chord with viewers, and today the video has passed twenty million hits. The DeVores have now been on the Today show with Matt Lauer, as well as The Tyra Banks Show. DeVore started a “David After Dentist” blog and sells T-shirts sporting quotes from the clip. The shirts have been ordered by fans as far away as Iran and Iraq.

Despite the increasing popularity of “David After Dentist,” DeVore has been criticised for his entrepreneurship.

“Way to exploit your own child! Keep it up! Hope T-shirt sales are going well,” says one commenter on DeVore’s blog. “He might be young and innocent now but man, when he’s sixteen, and has friends, and they find out about this, hes going to get so much flack,” augurs another. DeVore, who welcomes open debate on his blog, is certainly not the only YouTube parent to weather such criticism.

“I don’t think it’s going to scar a child for life, but I do think it’s going to cause bumps down the road,” says Dr. Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Communications and Media. “Later on [the children] may feel privacy violations by their parents and also a sense of humiliation when they get older and find out these videos were broadcast to the entire world.” She adds, “If you get popular enough, the question to ask yourself is what you’re trying to achieve. What’s the point of a million anonymous people laughing at your video?”

The point, if you ask YouTube parents, is to simply have fun and bring a little laughter into people’s lives. “When David saw it the night we got home, he was just cracking up, as was the rest of our family,” DeVore recalls.

“We literally get hundreds of requests for more videos,” says Jones. “One of the things that drives me to do the whole YouTube thing is that we get such lovely comments and emails from people all over the world. I keep track of them so I can share with the boys when they get a little bit older.”

Then, of course, there is the money. Allison Jacobs, a cop and mother of two in the Bay Area, says that she earned $6,000 from advertisements over the course of six months. Her video, “I Don’t Like You Mommy,” has attracted close to twenty million hits. In it, her then-three-year-old son Justin tells her that he doesn’t like her unless she gives him cookies. When Jacobs posted the video, she thought she had set it up for private viewing only. Instead, she one day got a phone call from her sister asking why she had 9,000 page views. Jacobs now posts videos of her sons a couple of times per month. Justin has been featured on The Bonnie Hunt Show, and has been approached twice by Ellen Degeneres’ producers.

When advertisers contacted Jacobs, she saw an opportunity to start saving for her sons’ university funds. “I would be a fool not to take advantage,” she says. As for people who call this exploitation, she disagrees. “I’m definitely playing it smart and taking advantage of the fact that every time you click, my kids are getting their college tuition paid for. If my sons weren’t benefiting, I wouldn’t put up with all the negative comments. [She's referring in part to trolls who post derogatory, not-safe-for-family comments.] And I do think their videos bring so much joy to certain people.”

DeVore and Jones receive ad revenue as well. Both partake in the YouTube Partner Program, which entitles YouTube video owners to profit from advertisements posted next to their clips. Though they declined to disclose how much money the ads have generated, both parents are investing the revenue into their children’s future. DeVore is also donating money to charities like the American Dental Association’s Give Kids A Smile Foundation.

In a way, you might say the parents deserve the money, since managing their kids’ bizarre strain of fame is almost like a second job. They read and respond to fan mail, censor X-rated comments, field interview requests from producers and journalists. When contacted for this article, Jones responded with a list of conditions, some of them curiously touching. For example, condition #2: “You have Charlie’s name from the clip, but Harry is also mentioned by name, not as ‘The other kid,’ or ‘The older boy’ for example.” Or condition #3: “The video is not used as a means for ridicule of the boys, a race or nationality.”

Some parents go so far as to hire lawyers and copyright the video, not so much for marketing purposes but to ensure that people do not abuse the video or their child’s image. “Ownership was very important to us because we didn’t want [the video] to be used in an inappropriate manner,” says DeVore. “That was the sole motivation for getting an attorney involved and having it copyrighted. It gives us some teeth if somebody used it in a way we didn’t like.”

As for the kids themselves, if you ask David and Justin if they feel famous, they’ll say yes, with a giggle. Otherwise, you get the sense that YouTube is just a blip on their radar, amid all the sports, school plays and video games.

“It’s been an overwhelming positive experience,” DeVore says. “Right now it’s at a stage where it’s just a fun memory, something that we can look back on when he’s a parent.”

*last name has been changed for privacy.

Jonathan Taylor-Thomas

Known to his fans as JTT, Thomas is famous for his role of the tween heart-throb Randy Taylor on the sitcom Home Improvement in 1991 at age 10.

Where is he now?

Once Home Improvement wrapped, Thomas voiced Simba in the 1994 Disney Blockbuster film The Lion King and appeared in some straight-to-DVD movies. Gay rumours surfaced after he portayed homosexual characters in such films as Common Ground, and Speedway Junky, a claim he denies.
Thomas attended Harvard University and now attends Columbia University Graduate School. The future? Rich businessman.

Keisha Castle-Hughes

At the tender age of 12 the Kiwi actress rode all the way to the Academy Awards playing Pai in Whale Rider.

Where is she now?

Suddenly hot Hollywood Property, Castle-Hughes starred in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and as the Virgin Mary in The Nativity Story. At the age of 17 she gave birth to a daughter, Felicity-Amore and now lives back in Auckland. The future? More babies.

Keshia Knight Pulliam

Acting since the age of 3, Pulliam is best known as the adorable Rudy Huxtable in The Cosby Show.

Where is she now?

In 2004, Knight Pulliam posed for a six-page lingerie and swimsuit layout in Black Men magazine in an attempt to get rid of her Rudy “little girl” image. The same year, she starred in Chingy’s music video for “One Call Away”. After denying cocaine rumours, in 2008, She joined the cast of TV show House of Payne as a regular character. The future? On the down low.

Kirk Cameron

Cameron is best-known for his role as teen pin-up Mike Seaver on the television sit-com Growing Pains.

Where is he now?

Cameron “found God” at the age of 17, during the height of his career on Growing Pains. After converting to Christianity, he felt his fellow cast members were immoral and did not invite them to his wedding. Cameron is currently a TV evangelist and partner in the evangelical Christian ministry The Way of the Master. The future? Heavenly.

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay hit the big time at age11, by playing identical twins in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded soon followed and Lindsay became the coolest teen in Hollywood.

Where is she now?

Where do we start? Lohan moved into small indie roles while her private life derailed into a haze of car accidents, drug arrests, jail time and rehab. She’s now found stability with female partner Samantha Ronson and has movies due out this summer. The future? We ain’t seen the last of Lindsay.

Macaulay Culkin

Little Macaulay Culkin stole our hearts as the abandoned Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone movie franchise and as a tragic sweetheart in My Girl – he was the blonde haired, male, Shirley Temple of the 90s.

Where is he now?

Culkin had a short-lived teen marriage to actress Rachel Miner and a long period of inactivity after his initial childhood success. His portrayal as the drug-addled Michael Alig in dark drama/comedy Party Monster in 2003 gained him new fans but life soon imitated art when, in 2004, he was arrested for the possession of marijuana and a controlled substance, Xanax.
In 2006, Miramax released Culkin’s first novel, Junior, a book following the life of a child star and he now dates actress Mila Kunis. The future? We predict a comeback!

Matthew Krok

Who? You know, the guy universally referred to as “the fat kid from Hey Dad..!” He also appeared in a popular Sorbent toilet paper ad during the 90s.

Where is he now?

Krok’s last credited acting appearance was in the 2001 children’s television series Outriders. Since then, he has done a stint as Mormon missionary and is now undertaking a double degree in civil and environmental engineering. He has an open Facebook profile. The future? Oblivion.

Neil Patrick Harris

Remember Doogie Howser, M.D? Yep, Neil Patrick played the brilliant teenage doctor who was also faced with the problems of being a normal teen.

Where is he now?

Harris had had consistent but low-key roles in theatre, film and TV ever since his Doogie Howser days. He hit the big-time again in TV series How I Met Your Mother and has recently come out as gay. The future? Let’s hope he’s wearing shades.

Nikki Webster

She was the star of the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony, a singing, dancing, ringlet-ed cutie pie. Her Olympics success earned her a record deal which launched the hit “Strawberry Kisses”.

Where is she now?

Webster’s career has been quiet since ending her BMG contract expired in 2004. Webster launched a more mature look by posing in a bikini for FHM in 2006 and performing as a wind-up doll at the 2007 Sleaze Ball. She has supposedly been working on a new album in the US. Her future? Cabaret.

Sara Gilbert

At the age of 13, Gilbert landed the role of Darlene Conner, the sarcastic middle child, in sitcom Roseanne. Over the nine years it ran Darlene became a cult character.

Where is she now?

Since Roseanne, Gilbert has had semi-regular cameo work in film and TV, shooting spots for popular shows like Private Practice, 24 and Law and Order. She has two children with her partner Allison Adler. They had a son born in October 2004 and a daughter born on August 2, 2007. Allison carried the couple’s son and Gilbert carried their daughter. The future? Plenty more “wasn’t she in…?” moments.

Soleil Moon Frye

This quirkily-named actress became an overnight sensation when at 8 years old she starred in the title role of TVs Punky Brewster.

Where is she now?

Frye has continued to act in TV and film, including a three year run on Sabrina The Teenage Witch. She is best friends with co-star Melissa Joan Hart and has two daughters (Poet Sienna Rose and Jagger Joseph Blue Goldberg – yes really). She is also co-founder of “the Little Seed”, an environmentally-conscious children’s specialty boutique in where else but L.A. The future: fabulous, but not famous.

Tina Yothers

She was the child actress who played environmentally-conscious third child Jennifer in the sitcom Family Ties.

Where is she now?

After the series finished, Yothers died her distinctive blonde hair black and has worn it dark ever since. She wrote the book Being Your Best: Tina Yothers’s Guide for Girls and formed the band Jaded with her brother. After a nine year absence from acting, Tina was given the lead role in Lovelace the Musical, a 2004 stage show based on the life of porn star Linda Lovelace. She has two children and has battled with her weight on TVs Celebrity Fit Club. The future? Suburban.

Anna Chlumsky

When she was just 11 years old Anna Chlumsky stole our hearts as Vada Sultenfuss in the 1991 movie My Girl.

Where is she now?

Chlumsky has had consistent TV and stage roles, and with several movies in production her star seems to be on the rise again. The future? Looking up.

The Two Coreys

You couldn’t switch to your Betacam in the 80s without finding the two Coreys – Haim and Feldman – on your screen. Individually and together they acted in a number of iconic 80s teen flicks, including The Lost Boys and Licence To Drive.

Where are they now?

After their 80s career high, the Coreys struggled to maintain their position in Hollywood and turned to direct-to-video and voiceover work. Both served time in rehab for drug addiction. The duo made a return back to the spotlight for the reality show The Two Coreys, although they had a falling out with Feldman now refusing to have any contact with Haim again. The future? It’s back to obscurity, I’m afraid.

Danica McKellar

She shot to fame at the age of 13 as the winsome Winnie Cooper in TVs The Wonder Years, which ran from 1988-1993.

Where is she now?

McKellar has had a patchy career in entertainment since becoming an adult. Although filming several guests roles on high profile TV shows such as The West Wing, McKellar has had more success in the field of… mathematics! Since majoring in the topic at college, she has gone on two write two books popularising maths for girls. The future? The sexy mathematician niche is one worth exploiting.

Drew Barrymore

E.T at 5. addiction at 9 and rehab at 13 – Drew Barrymore is the poster child for out-of-control child actors.

Where is she now?

An extremely successful actor and producer, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). She also models for Cover Girl cosmetic and Gucci Jewellery. The future? We hope you’re wearing sunglasses, Ms. Barrymore.

Dustin Diamond

Acting since the age of 10, Diamond was the uber-geek ‘Screech’ in 90s hit TV show Saved By The Bell.

Where is he now?

After Saved By The Bell ended, Diamond has appeared on the A-Z of dreadful celebrity reality shows, from Celebrity Boxing 2 to The Weakest Link and Celebrity Fit Club. A guy who’ll seemingly do anything to stay in the spotlight, he pretended he was going bankrupt and organised a telethon, which was cancelled after a TV executive doubted his credibility and concerns about his “obnoxious behaviour”. His latest move is to “accidentally” leak a sex tape. The future? Pass the bucket.

Edward Furlong

His breakthrough role in Terminator 2 at age 13, seemed to auger a glittering career for Edward Furlong.

Where is he now?

Furlong has fought a long battle with drug and alcohol problems, stating that “lots of money and lots of free coke will turn anyone into a cokehead”. Despite indie film success in the 1990s, the work has dried up, with Furlong last seen on screens as a guest player on CSI:NY. He is married to actress Rachael Bella and has a 2-year-old son, Ethan. The future? Grim.

Emmanuel Lewis

His 80s show Webster rivalled Different Strokes in the black-kid-in-white-family genre (why didn’t they ever try the reverse?) Emmanuel Lewis is also known for his short stature, at just 1.3 metres high (he claims there is no medical reason for it.)

Where is he now?

Now 37, Lewis has had sporadic work since his Webster days, with the exception of two series of MTV reality show The Surreal Life. The future? We see him spending a lot of time in Vegas.

Fred Savage

He played the everykid of our collective past in TVs The Wonder Years throughout his real-life adolescence, after an adorable performance in cult classic The Princess Bride.

Where is he now?

After The Wonder Years, Savage primarily did guest and supporting roles including appearing as a serial rapist on Law and Order: SVU.
His behind-the-scenes directing career earned him a nomination for “Worst Director” at the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards (for Daddy Day Care). The future? Back to to the other side of the camera.

Gary Coleman

As Arnold Jackson in after-school special Diff’rent Strokes he brought us the line, “What’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” Earning up to $100,000 an episode as a mere teenager, Coleman’s future looked bright.

Where is he now?

Coleman’s popularity continued during the 80s, starring in feature films and filming TV guest appearances. But bankruptcy and legal problems have marred his career since. Coleman’s latest claim to fame is appearing with new wife Shannon Price, 18 years his junior , in US reality show Divorce Court. The future? Troubled.

Haley Joel Osmont

As the creepy kid who saw dead people in The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osmont was the go-to precocious child actor during the late 90s and early noughties, also appearing in Forrest Gump, A.I and Pay It Forward.

Where is he now?

Now 20, Osmont has spent much of the last six years doing voiceover work. Two years ago he crashed his car while drunk and in possession of marijuana and was forced to go to rehab. He now seems to be back on track, with two feature films in post-production. The future? Looking up.

Jodie Sweetin

Best known for playing spunky middle child Stephanie on Full House from age 5 to 13, she was famous for the catchphrase, “How rude!”

Where is she now?

While the Olsen twins, who played younger sister Michelle on the show, went on to achieve mega-stardom, Sweetin went back to high school, married young and fell into a meth addiction. The nadir of her career was hosting a TV contest for strippers called Pants-Off Dance-Off in 2006. Sweetin has since re-married, kicked her addiction and had a daughter Zoie, 6 months. The future? Quiet.

Jonathan Lipnicki

He was the uber-cute 6-year-old who stole Tom Cruise’s heart in Jerry Maguire playing the son of Renee Zellweger.

Where is he now?

Now 18, Lipnicki is in his final year of highschool. While he’s had intermittent film and TV work, it looks like he’s stayed out of trouble and concentrated on school work and being a strait-edge vegan (for serious!) The future: solid.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Child Star series next week.