Illinois Might Be First State With ‘Kidfluencer’ Laws

Child social media stars don't have much protection under the law but a new bill in Illinois is hoping to change that.

TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms don't allow anyone under 13 on the platform but that hasn't stopped kids from becoming social media standouts. The little influencers, also called 'kidfluencers', can still make hundreds or thousands of dollars per social media post, according to ABC News' FiveThirtyEight. A YouGov poll from December 2022 found that the majority of Americans think that child labor laws should extend to child influencers and most people think that the kidfluencers' parents exploit them at least "somewhat" often. Kidfluencers can get popular because they give our kids wholesome content to watch on their tablets.

Illinois's New Way To Protect The Littles

Across the board, states don't have protections in place for kidfluencers. According to the Associated Press, a bill is in the works in Illinois to help provide the child social media stars with compensation protection and it would be trailblazing in the U.S. 

What It Would Do

The bill is modeled after the 1939 Jackie Coogan law that's designed to protect kid entertainers' earnings. It requires their parents to set aside a portion of their earnings for when they become adults.

It would let kid influencers under 16 have a percentage of their earnings based on how often they appear in videos or make content that generates at least 10 cents per view. There are some stipulations. The content must be created in Illinois and the kids would have to be in at least 30% of the content in a 30-day period.

The bill was passed by the Senate in March, it's before the House now, and Governor Pritzker has already made it clear that he intends to sign it.