Illinois is the first state in the United States to approve legislation ensuring that child social media influencers receive a portion of the income produced by content uploaded online by their parents or guardians.
The bill was enacted on Friday after being introduced in the Illinois General Assembly in February.
“The rise of social media has given children new opportunities to earn a profit,” said Senator David Koehler, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in Illinois last week. “Many parents have taken advantage of this opportunity to pocket money while forcing their children to continue working in these digital environments.”
Koehler further stated that the bill, which will apply to youngsters under the age of 16 who appear in sponsored content online, was inspired by a 15-year-old content creator in his area.
Video blogs, also known as ‘vlogs,’ and other online content on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have attracted large audiences in the so-called “sharenthood” industry, in which parents provide advice to strangers online about various aspects of childcare in video clips that frequently feature their own children.
“I realized that there’s a lot of exploitation that can happen within the world of ‘kidfluencing,’” said Sheyra Nallamothu, the teenager who first proposed the bill to Koehler, according to ABC News. “And I realized that there was absolutely zero legislation in place to protect them.”
Some ‘kidfluencing’ movies can attract hundreds of thousands of views online and tens of thousands of dollars in advertising income. However, there has been little oversight of the rapidly growing internet cottage sector.
Many states in the United States currently compel parents to reserve earnings created by their children in more traditional media outlets like as cinema and television, but the Illinois law, which is slated to take effect next July, will be the first to directly affect young social media artists.
According to the law’s provisions, which will only apply to online content published in the state of Illinois, under-16s will be entitled to a portion of money from content that produces at least 10 cents per view.
