Child social media stars have few protections. Illinois aims to fix that
Holed up at home during the pandemic lockdown three years ago, 13-year-old Shreya Nallamothu was scrolling through social media when she noticed a pattern: Children even younger than her were the stars — dancing, cracking one-liners and being generally adorable.
“It seemed innocuous to me at first,” Nallamothu said.
But as she watched more and more posts of kids pushing products or their mishaps going viral, she started to wonder: Who is looking out for them?
“I realized that there's a lot of exploitation that can happen within the world of ‘kidfluencing,'" said Nallamothu, referring to the monetization of social media content featuring children. “And I realized that there was absolutely zero legislation in place to protect them.”
Illinois lawmakers aim to change that by making their state what they say will be the first in the country to create protections for child social media influencers. Nallamothu, now 15, raised her concerns to Illinois state Sen. David Koehler of Peoria, who then set the legislation in motion.
The Illinois bill would entitle child influencers under the age of 16 to a percentage of earnings based on how often they appear on video blogs or online content that generates at least 10 cents per view. To qualify, the content must be created in Illinois, and kids would have to be featured in at least 30% of the content in a 30-day-period.
Video bloggers — or vloggers — would be responsible for maintaining records of kids' appearances and must set aside gross earnings for the child in a trust account for when they turn 18, otherwise the child can sue.
The bill passed the state Senate unanimously in March, and is scheduled to be considered by the House this week. If it wins approval, the bill will go back to the
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