A new law in California requires parents to set aside money earned by child social media influencers and place the proceeds in an account that the child won’t have access to until he or she becomes an adult.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday joined pop star and former child actress Demi Lovato in authorizing parents or guardians to place a percentage of money earned online by minors in a trust account, according to the governor’s office. Signed a bill requiring it.
The governor also signed a second bill expanding the state’s Coogan Act, which has long protected child actors in Hollywood, to include minors employed as online content creators.
The law required that 15% of children and teens’ income be placed in a trust that would not be touched until their 18th birthday.
These protections will protect minors who appear in online content from “economic abuse,” Newsom’s office said.
“In old Hollywood, child actors were exploited. In 2024, they are now child influencers,” Newsom said in a statement.
“Today, this modern-day exploitation ends with two new laws to protect young influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms.”
The Golden State’s law is modeled after one in Illinois, where lawmakers amended the state’s child labor laws to include children appearing on their parents’ or guardians’ social media accounts.
The bill specifically provides that if a child under the age of 16 appears in at least 30% of monetized content online, the influencer must receive 15% of their gross income. The mother, father, or caretaker must be responsible for depositing the proceeds into the trust account.
Content “sharing” has quickly become a lucrative business online over the past few years, especially with the explosion of social media.
Examples include everything from “family video blogs” documenting a family’s daily life to brand-sponsored campaigns in which children promote clothing and products.
Johanna Grange, a mother of two and co-founder of Chicago-based social media marketing company Oak Street Social, says influencers with more than 1 million followers can max out a single sponsored post. It is said that you can earn up to $20,000.
Even people with fewer than 100,000 followers can earn up to $4,000 per sponsored post, Grange told Good Morning America.
Some parents have turned their children’s lives into careers, she says.
“Social media has become premium for communicating brands to large audiences,” Grange told the outlet.
“Once blogging, Instagram and YouTube became popular, and now with TikTok and a host of other services, people found it as a viable way to earn money on the side or full time.”
Brooke Raybould, a mother of four boys from Virginia, has amassed 700,000 followers online by sharing videos of her life as a mother. Just two years after she started posting, she was earning over six figures a year.
“In a way, I felt like I struck gold…because I was able to be home with my kids, share a natural lifestyle, work at very condensed times throughout the day, and have a decent living. Because I can send it,” Raybould told GMA. “It was basically like a dream to me.”
Her mother said she considers her job similar to running a family business where everyone helps out. She says it’s rare for her son, ages 2 to 9, to be asked to help for more than 15 minutes, but she always asks if it’s okay to participate.
“I tell my kids, ‘Mommy does this, we do this, and I share with other moms,'” Raybould said.
Chris Chin manages his 8-year-old son’s YouTube channel Kaven’s Adventures, which has more than 733,000 followers. He said that he considers their time together on camera to be more of a “bond” than a source of income.
Chin likened monetizing Caven’s YouTube channel to being a parent supporting your child in sports.
“Realistically, if your child plays a sport…you might say they’re not doing it for the money, but you want them to participate in something competitive. “I’m here because I hope that in the future I’ll be able to make money in sports,” he told Good Morning America.
“I think most parents start to understand when you start looking at[social media]as just a regular activity.”