Why Illinois enacted a law to protect children of influencers

Catching up with a growing culture of child influencers, or children whose parents feature them online for monetary gain, the US state of Illinois has signed a new legislation that safeguards minors and their earnings, the first of its kind in the country.

The bill, which passed the Illinois senate unanimously in March, was officially signed into law on August 11.

Child influencers under the age of 16 will be entitled to a percentage of revenue from content they appear in once the law comes into effect next July. Children who appear in 30 percent of vlogs in a 12-month period will also be able to sue parents or guardians who fail to set aside half of the earnings that come from each piece of monetised content in a trust account, which the child can access upon turning 18.

With the rise of family vloggers sharing personal details and profiting off of content on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the new amendment to Illinois’s Child Labour Law aims to prevent parents from exploiting children for personal financial gain.

The idea behind it stemmed from 16-year-old, Illinois native Shreya Nallamothu. The high school student was scrolling through social media during the pandemic when she came across multiple family vlog accounts that spotlight children, and realised there was virtually no legal protection for the underage influencers. Despite children being the star of such content, there is currently no law that requires parents to share earnings with their children.

Frustrated, Nallamothu wrote a letter to Illinois state senator, David Koehler, who went on to introduce the legislation.

Run by parents, child influencer accounts can be a lucrative business. Some of the highest-paid YouTube stars include seven-year-old Nastya and 11-year-old Ryan Kaji, who earned $28 million and $27 million respectively in 2022, according to Forbes.

The new law is similar to the 1936 Jackie Coogan Law which protects child actors and their earnings.

While this is the first law to protect child labour in the US, France was the first country to adopt laws protecting child influencers. The legislation came into force on April 20, 2021, and additionally gives minors the right to have any piece of content depicting themselves to be deleted.