According to a recent California law, parents must save money made by their children’s social media influencers and deposit it into accounts that their children cannot access until they are adults.
According to the governor’s office, pop singer and former child actress Demi Lovato signed the measure with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday. It requires parents and guardians to deposit a portion of money earned by kids on the internet into trust accounts.
In addition, the governor approved a second piece of legislation that broadens the scope of the state’s Coogan Law, which has traditionally protected young actors in Hollywood to cover minors working as online content providers.
15% of children’s and teens’ earnings had to go into a trust and stay there until they turn 18 according to the law. According to Newsom’s administration, these safeguards will guarantee that kids who appear in internet content “are protected from financial abuse.”
“In old Hollywood, child actors were exploited. In 2024, it’s now child influencers,” Newsom stated.
“Today, that modern exploitation ends through two new laws to protect young influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms.”
The laws of the Golden State are modeled after those of Illinois, where lawmakers modified the state’s Child Labor Act to cover minors who are posted on social media by their parents or guardians.
The measure stipulates that if an influencer appears in at least 30% of monetized content online, minors under the age of sixteen shall get 15% of the influencer’s gross profits. The earnings must be deposited into a trust account by parents, guardians, or minders.
Over the past few years, “sharing” material has become a very profitable internet business, especially with the rise of social media. A few instances are “family vlogs,” which chronicle a family’s daily activities, and brand-sponsored advertisements featuring children promoting goods or apparel.
The co-founder of Oak Street Social, a social media marketing company based in Chicago and mother of two Johanna Grange, claims that an influencer with more than a million followers can make up to $20,000 for a single sponsored post.
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According to Grange, on Good Morning America, those who have fewer than 100,000 followers may still make up to $4,000 for a single sponsored post. According to her, some parents have made their kids’ lives into careers.
“Social media has become the premium for getting your brand out to a large audience,” Grange stated.
“Once blogging and Instagram and YouTube took off, and now we have TikTok and so many more, people found it as a viable way to make either a side hustle or a full-time compensation.”
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