Despite child influencers like eight-year-old Ryan boasting an estimated net worth of €100 million, lawmakers remain sharply divided on the concept of using children to generate money on social media and position themselves as influencers. . When it comes to children, few laws exist, leaving it up to parents to determine whether their children get paid to appear in sponsored posts. In this case, when they still do not have the notions to decide for themselves.
Yes, there is one group in the creative economy that has perhaps been left out of the equal pay conversation: children.
the wild west. No need to watch the docuseries called Kidfluencers: Few Rules, Big Money to realize that there are minors who earn millions on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. While parents often insist that they do it because the kids have fun and enjoy it, the fact is that a sponsored post or monetized video can generate thousands of dollars for both parents and businesses. In fact, the most successful youtuber could be a seven-year-old boy who earns 22 million a year.
Despite this, the laws created to protect child labor and children’s earnings do not extend to social networks. For example, in some US states, legislation requires parents to set aside a minimum of 15% of their children’s earnings. But because being an influencer isn’t considered a “job,” the earnings from these posts aren’t necessarily reserved for the same kids who make the posts popular.
They are unaware. Of course, the parents argue that they are doing the real work interacting with customers, editing photos and videos, and planning. But even if the money reflects the work of the parents more than that of the child, they are still earning it from someone who may not fully understand what it means to have their image used to sell products. There is also the question of whether the work of influencers counts as child labour. While posing with toys is a far cry from working in a factory, labor laws are in place for a reason: to guarantee things like wages and maximum hours.
How often do they get paid? The Motherhood, an influencer marketing agency that specializes in part in nurturing influencers, surveyed 359 people and 97% said they include their children in sponsored content. But how often do these children get paid for their work? According to the survey, 53% of parents do not charge an additional fee when they include their children in the content.
When it comes to children, there are few regulations or laws, leaving it up to parents to determine whether and how their children get paid to appear in sponsored posts. “They don’t have the same protections as young people employed as actors or entertainers, and they don’t have legal rights to the profits from their family business,” said Qianna Smith Bruneteau, director of the American Influencer Council (AIC).
The legislation. Legislation like California’s Coogan Act protects children in the entertainment industry by ensuring they receive at least 15% of its profits, but nothing similar exists for child influencers. It also required state courts to uphold the contracts of child performers, a provision lobbied for by Walt Disney himself who codified the state’s mistrust of stage parents acting in their children’s best interests.
Other legal protections followed: child artists must obtain work permits, and there are strict regulations that limit their working hours, require “rest and recreation” time when on set, and require that work not interfere with their education. Still, it wasn’t until the 1999 review that California lawmakers took the radical step of declaring by law that child artists own all of their earnings, not just the 15% set aside in Coogan accounts. The parents can use the remaining 85% to take care of the child, whether it is to buy a house, cover their expenses or even pay themselves a salary to manage the child’s career, but the money is the property of the child.
The problem. But experts argue that perhaps brands should think about this question as much as influencers. But perhaps these decisions should not be left to them alone. “Child influencers deserve the same safeguards as child artists. Work permits could be a viable solution” to the pay equity issue, he said, explained Bruneteau, noting that New York state currently issues work permits for kids.
Today, those laws, which were designed to protect child stars from exploitation by both their parents and their employers, are not regularly applied to today’s petite celebrities, even though they are making millions on the major platforms. .