Illinois has passed a new law that allows children to be paid for appearing on their parent influencer's social media.
The state officially implemented a new amendment to the Child Labor Law, which went into effect on July 1.
The bill states that children under the age of 16 are entitled to a share of the revenue if they feature in at least 30% of their adult guardians’ social media content over 30 days.
The adult making the content - whether it's Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or other types of short-form videos - is expected to set aside gross earnings in a trust account for the child to receive at the age of 18.
The law also allows young social media stars to take legal action against guardians who fail to properly compensate them for their work, per a statement from the office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who signed the bill into law in August 2023.
Illinois is the first state in the country to enact such a law, but it may not be the last as Maryland, California, and Wisconsin are also considering similar legislation.
Stephen Balkam, the CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), spoke out about the bill, describing it as a great “first step” when it comes to the conversation of minors on the internet, privacy, and financial exploitation.
“We would love to see it pass throughout the state capitols,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “I would not hold my breath for a federal law, but the fact that discussions are happening in other states is very encouraging.”
The bill was inspired by a 16-year-old named Shreya Nallamothu who brought this issue to local legislators such as State Sen. David Koehler. The teen told Good Morning America she “kept seeing cases of exploitation” the more she researched about the subject.
"Especially for very young children who maybe don't understand what talking to a camera means and they're not able to conceptualize what a million people looks like, they don't understand what they're putting out into the internet for profit and that it's not going to be able to go away and that their parents are making money off of it," she said.
After taking notice of Nallamothu's concern, Koehler said: "This new digital age has given us tremendous opportunities to connect with one another, but it’s also presented legal issues that have never existed before," as cited by Rolling Stone.
"We need to work with our children to see the problems they face and tackle them head-on before any further harm is done," he added.
According to ABC, an influencer with more than 1 million followers may earn around $20,000 for one sponsored post, while someone with under 100K followers may still earn as much as $4,000 for one sponsored post.
A creator named Brooke Raybould, who has four young boys, said she felt like she had "struck gold" when she began making money from her social media posts.
Raybould, who boasts 709K followers on Instagram, told the publication that she and her husband have created a financial compensation structure for their children's involvement in her content.
While there is no regulation for family influencers in her home state of Virginia, she can "understand" why people are concerned.
"I understand where it could go south," she said. "I'm not to say that it's not necessary that people aren't looking at this and making sure, because you have to be an ethical person no matter what you do ... And we need certain bodies to make sure that people are making the ethical decision."
Carolyn Jarrett, a mom and the co-founder of Oak Street Social, said “going after people’s pocketbooks” is a powerful way of getting parents to wake up and sparking a wider conversation on whether it's right to share kids' private lives online.
"So this is such a good way to get the conversation going about what a child's rights should be in relation to what is posted about them on social," Jarrett said.
"Maybe that's what someone smarter than us figured out from the go, that, hey, let's talk about money, and the rest of the conversation will follow," she concluded.
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