California will require parents to save earnings for influential children

California is now the second state in the nation to enact financial protections for teens and children who appear on social media.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday that requires parents and guardians to set aside in trust accounts a percentage of minors’ earnings “featured in revenue-generating online content,” according to the governor’s website.

The second piece of legislation, also signed by Newsom on Thursday, extends the Coogan Act – long-term protections for child actors – to minors employed as content creators on platforms such as YouTube. The law requires that at least 15% of minors’ earnings be deposited in a trust until they turn 18.

Newsom signed the bill with singer Demi Lovato, who started out as a child actor and recently made her directorial debut with “Child Actor,” a Hulu documentary exploring the ups and downs of growing up in the entertainment spotlight.

“To build a brighter future for the next generation of child stars, we must ensure protections for minors working in the digital space,” Lovato said in a statement shared by Newsom’s office. “I am grateful to Governor Newsom for taking action on an update to the Coogan Act that will ensure that children featured on social media, once they reach the age of majority, are properly compensated for the use of their name and likeness.”

In enacting legislation to protect those who influence children, California is following the lead of Illinois, where a bill that took effect July 1 amends the state’s child labor law to include children who appear on their parents’ or guardians’ social media.

More specifically, it requires that children aged 16 and under receive compensation if, within a 30-day period, they appear in at least 30% of videos or online content that are paid for by an adult – a parent or guardian. The person who creates the videos in which the child appears is responsible for setting aside gross earnings in a trust account so that the child can receive them at age 18.

The types of “sharing” content that have become a profitable online business over the past decade include everything from “family vlogs” documenting a family’s daily life to branding campaigns in which children advertise a particular brand of clothing, e.g.

In today’s world, an influencer with over a million followers can earn over $20,000 per sponsored post, while someone with less than 100,000 followers on a social media platform can still earn up to $4,000 per sponsored post, according to Johanna Grange. , mother of two and co-founder of Oak Street Social, a social media marketing company based in Chicago.

“Social media has become essential for branding to reach a wide audience,” Grange told “Good Morning America,” adding that the economics of the industry have made it possible for parents to turn social media, often featuring their children, into a career. “When blogging, Instagram and YouTube took off, and now we have TikTok and many others, people saw it as a viable way to make a side hustle or a full-time salary.”

“I felt like I struck gold.”

Brooke Raybould, a mother of four sons ages 2 to 9, said that when she started earning money from social media posts about her life as a mother to four boys, she felt like she had “struck a gold medal.”

Raybobo, who lives in Northern Virginia, started sharing her life on Instagram after she became pregnant with her first son while in MBA school. After graduating, Raybould decided to become a stay-at-home mom and stated that she viewed her social media content as a way to pursue entrepreneurship while maintaining the flexibility of a career as a mom.

“It gave me something to do in addition to motherhood that was fun, challenging and fueled my entrepreneurial spirit,” Raybould told “GMA” in July, adding that after just over two years of building a fan base, she was earning more than six figures a year.

“I felt like I had kind of found a middle ground… because I could be home with my kids, share my natural life, work for a fairly short amount of time during the day and make a decent living,” Raybould said. “It was basically like a dream for me.”

Raybould said she and her husband, who works full-time outside the home, have created a financial compensation structure for their sons’ involvement with her social media content, but declined to provide specific details. Although there is currently no law in her home state of Virginia that addresses family influence issues, Raybould said she understands why there are growing calls for more regulation as the industry grows and children get involved.

“I understand where it might go south,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s not necessary for people not to look at it and make sure, because no matter what you do, you have to be ethical… We also need some bodies to make sure that people make an ethical decision. “

In Illinois, the law does not provide a state enforcement mechanism, but instead requires the parent or guardian to set aside earnings for the child and, if necessary, provides the parent or guardian with the ability to take legal action once the child reaches the age of majority. The office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who signed the bill, previously said the bill “creates a private right of action for people who influence children against their parents who have featured them in films and failed to compensate them appropriately.”

Raybould, who currently has more than 700,000 followers on Instagram, said she sees her job as running a family business where everyone can help. At the same time, she said that although they appear frequently on her social media, her sons’ actual involvement in her work is a small part of their day.

“I would say it’s very rare for them to help me with things that last longer than 15 minutes,” Raybould said, adding that she tries to be “overly communicative” when explaining her job to her sons. “I tell them, ‘Mom does this, we do this, I share it with other moms.’

She continued, “I ask them periodically if they are comfortable, if everything is OK and they are very positive.”

Chris Chin, a father of two, said he sees the social media content he creates with his oldest child, 8-year-old Kaven, more as an opportunity to bond with his son than a financial opportunity, although he said it is lucrative.

Chin, from Edmonton, Canada, manages his son’s YouTube channel “Kaven’s Adventures” and is also a stay-at-home parent with disabilities while his wife works outside the home.

Kaven’s YouTube channel, which has more than 730,000 subscribers, features the 8-year-old playing video games, sometimes with his dad.

“In my opinion, I treat YouTube like any other activity for a child,” Chin told “GMA” in July, explaining that he typically films Kaven playing video games for 30 minutes at a time, which is the same amount of time as other recreational activities Kaven does each week. , such as swimming and taekwondo lessons.

“It’s no different than, say, a parent filming their child playing hockey or soccer and posting it, right? We just play video games instead now,” he said, adding: “It’s also our bonding moment.”

Chin, who is working with a management agency to help his son earn money from his social media presence, said he and his wife are putting a portion of Kaven’s earnings into a trust and investments that he will have access to later, and now they will share some of it with their family to spend during joint activities, e.g. on vacation.

Chin said he views monetizing Kaven’s YouTube channel in the same way as parents who support their children in sports leagues.

Realistically speaking, if your child plays sports and you practice something like competitive dancing or ice hockey, you can say that you are not doing it for the money, but that you are giving your child something that involves competition so that in the future, you hope that they will make money from it,” he said. “If you look at social media from the perspective of a regular activity, I think most parents are starting to understand it.”

Should legislation focus on privacy or financial compensation?

As more countries have begun to consider financial protection for the children of influential people, some experts have wondered whether legislation should focus less on children’s financial rights and more on their right to privacy.

Carolyn Jarrett, a mother of four and co-founder with Grange Oak Street Social in Illinois, said she believes the legislation in her home state is a way to start a conversation about whether it’s right to share the privacy children live with online. .

“Rigging through people’s wallets is a great way to get people to consider their actions,” Jarrett said. “So this is a good way to start a conversation about children’s rights compared to what is being published about them on social media. Maybe someone smarter than us realized right away that: hey, let’s talk about money, and the rest of the conversation will follow later.

Jessica Maddox, a professor of digital media at the University of Alabama who studies social media platforms and culture, including influencers, previously told “GMA” that she hopes future legislation passed by Illinois or other states will include additional provisions, such as allowing an 18-year-old to petition to have their content removed from social media platforms.

Amanda Klecker, senior vice president of marketing and franchising at Pocket.watch, a digital media company that operates some of the industry’s largest children’s creators, including Ryan’s World, said the company made a conscious decision not to represent creators who show scenes from their children’s lives from behind.

“We don’t work with influencers who only show autobiographical content,” said Klecker, whose company also manages Chin’s son, Kaven. “All the creators we work with really represent different points of interest, whether it’s gaming, art, farming, mindfulness or pretend play. There are other things at play that don’t reveal the details of these kids’ personal lives, other than they’re interested in the type of content they’re creating.”

Klecker said: “That’s because we agree that it’s important to protect the child from spreading this type of information.”

Both Chin and Raybould told “GMA” that given their children’s presence on the Internet, they try very hard to be careful about what is shared. They both also said they haven’t experienced any privacy issues so far.

For Raybould, who shares her daily life more often online, being conscientious means not posting in real time and following a hard rule of not sharing her children’s difficult moments, such as meltdowns.

“I feel like if my kids ever decided they didn’t want to be a part of it… and even if I decided to stop one day, I feel like I could stop pretty quickly,” she said, adding, “It gives me hope for my kids, too.” kids that it’s not like they’re a celebrity’s kid, they’re a content creator’s kid, and when they grow up, they’re going to have their own stuff.”

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