TikTok couple say they don't exploit their kids for content, deny making them produce 40 videos on Disney World trip

• TikTok duo Lilly Davis, and her husband Paul, have responded to criticism over their content.
• They were accused of making their children work while on vacation at Disney World.
• They called the allegations "egregious" and said their children choose whether to be in videos.

A TikTok duo has responded to allegations of child exploitation, after a video criticizing their vacation content schedule went viral.

Lilly Davis, and her husband Paul, who have 171,000 followers on their TikTok account dearanddarling, posted a video on Monday in which they spoke about the accusations they had asked their six children to create 40 pieces of content while on holiday in Disney World.

"A very large TikTok account has made an outrageous video that has reached millions of people accusing us of truly egregious and more importantly false claims," said Davis. "And as a result, we are being attacked from multiple angles."

Davis said she hoped the backlash would "blow over," but journalists had been reaching out to her, so they felt "the need to respond."

Davis was reacting to a video posted by KC Davis, a content creator on TikTok, as well as an author and counselor, who has 1.6 million followers on her account domesticblisters.

KC said the couple had "exploited" their children, because they had shown a spreadsheet for their vacation to Disney World, which listed various video ideas for the children to take part in.

KC's video has since been deleted, but in it, she argued that family vlogging channels shouldn't be supported at all, according to MailOnline.

"Then she used my face and my video as a perfect example of a family content creator who exploits her children and makes them perform, and she states that I'm going to require our six children to make 40 videos while on our Disney World vacation," Davis said.

Davis said this assumption "could not be further from the truth," and denied being a family vlogging channel at all.

Davis said her husband "participates frequently" in their content, and the kids take part "on occasion."

She said out of the last 250 videos they had posted, only 14 included their kids, aside from their oldest daughter Maggie who is at college.

"It's not uncommon to get comments on our feed from a follower stating that they are shocked to learn that we have children because they assumed we didn't based on our content," Davis said.

Davis said without her children in the videos, her content would be more or less the same. She said as Disney fans, she and Paul make several trips to Disneyland a year, and often dress up as characters. They also review restaurants and hotels at the theme parks, and bring the kids along once a year.

"These trips are different," she said. "We film a fraction of the time, maybe 15, 20 minutes a day. The rest of our time is spent focusing on the family and our time together."

She added: "Our children have chosen their level of involvement in our channel."

The couple has six kids, five out of which are teenagers, Davis said, and they can all "opt-in and out as they please."

She denied again the allegation she was planning on having the children make 40 videos, saying content creation would only take up 15 to 20 minutes of their days, if they chose to take part in them.

"Paul and I don't even make 40 videos when it's just us making content full-time," Davis said. "We would never plan to attempt such an undertaking."

She added that she knew some people were against the idea of children being in videos altogether, but she did not want to argue that point.

She said she had also been diagnosed with ADHD and lists helped her stay organized.

"It takes all of my energy and brainpower to make these trips happen," she said. "It does not come easy to me, and the trips are full of spontaneity and chaos as a result. The idea list that you see in my video is actually Paul's attempt to help me stay organized."

Paul then spoke up in the video, saying the experience had been "surreal." He said people had jumped to the wrong conclusions about their family, and he wanted to "move on" from it.

"It's incredible how many people fall for misinformation being intentionally spread and grab their pitchforks," he said. "It makes me sick to my stomach that my way that I've chosen to try to help my wife is being used to prop her up as the face of something truly despicable and the vile messages and comments she's receiving because of it, it's truly disgusting."

Davis ended the video by urging people to "learn the facts" before jumping "on the bandwagon" of criticism.

"There are real people with real lives who are innocent on the other end of your hate and threats," she said. "Please be careful who you follow, who you support, and who you willingly attack based on what one person claims to be."

She also encouraged people to "be responsible" and have a "firm knowledge" of what they were claiming before making a video, "because you might be damagingly wrong in the information you're spreading."

KC deleted her original video but posted a response to Davis and Paul's TikTok on Monday night.

She said she had received "hundreds of comments" calling her evil, a bad mother, and accusing her of "spewing trash."

She stood by her initial video, saying it didn't matter if Davis and Paul considered themselves family vloggers or not.

"They made the decision to make a list of how they're going to film their children for content on family vacation," she said.

KC said the first nine videos she saw on their channel included their children, including one about their son's dental issues, so she felt "comfortable making the critique."

"I was responding to what they said in their video, which was, we don't want our children working on vacation, so we made a list of what we are going to film each day," KC said. "I was making a good faith response to that."

KC said she thought Davis saying the list was "just ideas" and mentioning her ADHD diagnosis was "convenient backpedaling."

"ADHD is not responsible for the decision to film your children for content on family vacation," she said. "Whether your children are in 13 of your videos or 3,000 of your videos, making the decision to make a list of how you're going to film them for content on family vacation is the perfect example of what happens behind the scenes when we see children as appropriate fodder for content for influencer channels."

KC clarified that she didn't want any of her followers going to Davis and Paul's channel to give them any trouble, but she thought her criticism was "appropriate."

"I understand that they're probably good parents that love their kids, and it's probably very uncomfortable to look at the reality that that decision was an exploitive one," she said.

Lily Davis and KC did not immediately respond to a request by Business Insider for comment.