Baby in Charlie Bit My Finger video reveals frustrating reality of viral clip 18 years on

The now-grown-up baby from the iconic 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video has revealed what it was like to grow up in the shadow of viral fame.

This month marks exactly 20 years since YouTube was first created by a group of former PayPal employees — and our technology has become completely unrecognisable in the past two decades.

It may be difficult to imagine for those who've grown up with smartphones but the world was a much simpler place in the days before influencers, algorithms and online followings.

And the popular content from the early days of YouTube is a perfect example of how much the world has changed.

Back in the early-to-mid 2000s going viral wasn't really a thing people aimed to do, with meant that popular content was often a lot more sincere and authentic. One of the biggest examples of this was a clip uploaded to YouTube by Howard Davies-Carr called 'Charlie Bit My Finger', which you can watch below:

Uploaded by Howard for the boys' grandfather in America, the video would most likely go unnoticed nowadays but happened to be just the thing people wanted to watch back in 2007 and ended up going viral.

The brief clip would go on to be viewed by people around the world, parodied hundreds of times over, and change the fortunes of the Davies-Carr family forever.

So what was it like growing up as one of the children in the video?

Now 18 and all grown up, Charlie Davies-Carr has opened up on the clip, revealing that while he doesn't remember the moment, it's always been part of his life.

"It was never not a part of my life, it's always been there," he said in an interview with the BBC to mark YouTube's 20th birthday.

However, the teenager is seemingly thankful for the fact that he's not instantly recognisable from the clip and doesn't usually bring it up to people.

"There were a few times at uni where you're going out and people are like 'you've got to give a fun fact'... I was never going to use this as my fun fact," he said.

Charlie then went on to explain that, while the video helped the family financially, it would get 'annoying' when people brought it up, particularly during his school years.

The 18-year-old added that it's hard for him to keep his viral past a complete secret as friends and family will often bring the clip up on his behalf.

"It slips out every now and then," he added.

"And people are like: 'Oh that's cool', for like five minutes. Or they say: 'I don't know what that is.'"