Challenges of Regulating the Sometimes-Nasty Business of Child Influencers

From the University of Virginia:

In Illinois, a new law is coming to protect children on social media. 

Beginning July 1, any adult who makes money sharing information online about children under 16 will have to place a certain percentage of the profits into a blocked trust for that child, based on the amount of time that child is on screen.

The amendment to the state’s Child Labor Law also allows minors to sue their parents or other adults who profited from such content and did not adequately safeguard the earnings.

“It looks like what happened is truly grassroots,” said Naomi Cahn, co-director of the University of Virginia’s Family Law Center and a professor in the School of Law. Teenager Shreya Nallamothu was so upset by what she was seeing happen to kid influencers that she wrote to her state senator asking for protection for them.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the new measure last August after both houses of the state’s legislature passed it, including a full sweep in the Senate.

“It’s currently the first such law,” Cahn said. “Other states have considered such legislation, including California and Washington state.”

Read more here.