How Illinois is Protecting Child Social Media Influencers

<div class="block">Illinois has become the first state to protect child social media influencers. Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo talked about the state&#39;s new law, which ensures that children under the age of 16 are compensated for their social media businesses.</div>

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In other news, Illinois has become the first state in the country to require parents to compensate child influencers. Starting next, July guardians will need to set aside a portion of their child's earnings in a trust. This is a move many activists have been asking for with growing concerns over Children being used in social content without rules in place for more. We're bringing in new senior reporter Michelle Castillo Shell, tell us more about this new Illinois legislation. Well, this law is the first to give some protection to child influencers and what has been an unregulated industry so far, Hannah. So the Illinois law which amends its actual child labor laws currently requires that parents set aside 50% of a child influencer earnings in a trust and they can access that once they are 18, this amount is also based on the time the child is in the piece of content. So for example, if a kid appears in 50% of a video, they are entitled to 25% of an e of the earnings and this will go into effect in July 2024. So I spoke to Senator Keeler who sponsored the bill. And he was alerted to the issue by a 13 year old constituent who had been concerned over being recommended. A lot of child led content on her social media accounts. And after speaking with his granddaughters, he said he was quote, shocked to find out how much money families were making off of this. He paralleled it with child acting and he added quote, it's not necessarily done in a sinister way, but nonetheless, it is used, you know, as a purpose of getting a lot of income. This is not grandma sending out pictures on the internet. This is about a family industry. Now child influencers won't be regulated by Illinois state government. Instead, this gives a child influencer a legal path to sue their parents when they turn 18 for back compensation. He hopes this will encourage parents to put aside some income and give child influencers some monetary compensation for their work. Now, interestingly enough, the initial bill version of bill included a stipulation that people could remove all their child influencer content once they turn 18. However, he had to drop this before it was signed into law. The senator does hope to pursue that clause though under consumer protection laws and there are laws for child entertainers like actors. Why don't they apply to influencers? Well, the child of the issue of child entertainment regulation is a bit complicated. So there are federal laws for minors under the age of 18 to work. And according to the federal government, miners are to work for their parents business at any age unless it has been deemed hazardous by the Secretary of Labor. And that includes some jobs like mining which are restricted to those over the age of 16. Now, if you are 16 or 17, you can work in any un hazardous job and there's no time limit, 14 and 15 year olds can work outside school hours with restrictions on how many hours they can work and the time they can work. So, for example, I worked in a movie theater, but 15 year olds weren't allowed to work the closing shift for and they had to work limited hours on if it was a school night. But child entertainers are exempt in many states from these regulations. And most states have laws that are more restrictive than the federal government guidelines actually, which, and those laws include requiring parents to put some money aside, have specific permits for child actors. And California, for example, even require certified educational tutors on set if a kid is in a production. So there's a lot of changes that we're seeing at this time and kid influencers just weren't a part of those when the laws were put in place.