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Issue Brief by Policy Analysts:
Katie Lee | klee@csg.org
Erin Twomey | etwomey@csg.org

Child influencers, sometimes referred to as “kid influencers” or “kidfluencers,” are individuals under the age of 18 who have established an online presence, either through their own social media accounts or that of their parents or guardians. Often, the child’s online content produces revenue through sponsored content or platform monetization.¹

Child influencers have become increasingly more prominent across social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. In response, concerns over these children’s financial and labor protections have also been on the rise. Lawmakers have been drawn to the topic and have begun to draft and, in some states, successfully enact child labor law expansions that cover children featured in monetized online content. By establishing legal safeguards—such as mandatory trust accounts and regulated working conditions—states ensure that child influencers are afforded rights like those provided to child actors and performers working in traditional media industries.

The Creator Economy

The creator economy refers to the growing ecosystem where individuals monetize their content, skills, and influence through digital/social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. This economy enables creators to earn income directly from their audience or through brand partnerships, memberships, and ad revenue. Social media and online content consumption have become more prevalent with time. Global Digital Insights found that in 2024, the United States had social media users that equated to around 70 percent of the total population.² The high consumption level has fueled the creator economy‘s growth. Goldman Sachs estimates that the creator economy is worth around $250 billion and could grow by 2027 to $480 billion.³

The creator economy has seen growth in the form of niche content surrounding child content creators and family content creation, with young children building significant online following and acclaim. While it is a new opportunity for revenue, it often falls on parents and/or guardians to oversee these accounts and content of these minors. This has raised concerns about these minors’ long-term well-being, including the potential for exploitation, loss of privacy, and the need for legal protections as these minors navigate their lives.

Public Interest in Child Content Creation

Content creation surrounding minors and geared towards minors is very popular. Three out of the 10 top most subscribed YouTube channels are channels that center around minors and are made for minors.

YouTube Channel and Ranking	Subscribers
6th: Vlad and Niki	139 million
7th: Kids Diana Show	134 million
8th: Like Nastya	127 million

The interest in protecting child content creators came to a head when the case of Ruby Franke garnered national attention. Ruby Franke was a family vlogger and content creator for a YouTube channel called “8 Passengers.” Franke’s channel, at its peak, amassed over 2.5 million subscribers and around 1 billion views.⁴ Her appeal to her audience was to show daily life and give child-rearing advice alongside her husband and six children. Income from this channel was handled by Ruby Franke and there seems to be no evidence that her children received any of the revenue generated from the channel.

Some viewers of the channel had previously raised concerns of mistreatment and out of the ordinary discipline given to the children, though no formal charges were filed until December 2023. Franke was charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse after her 12-year-old son escaped their home, appearing emaciated and bearing injuries consistent with being bound with duct tape.⁵ His escape led to a full investigation which determined that in addition to evidence of emotional and mental mistreatment of all six children, two of the Franke children had been physically abused.⁶ The Franke case raised ethical questions surrounding the exploitation of children online, the lack of oversight or consent from minors in content creation, and the lack of financial transparency of these media accounts.

Protections for Child Entertainers

According to the United States Fair Labor Standards Act, adopted in 1938, children working for their parents or guardians and child entertainers (including actors, models, and influencers) are exempt from federal child labor laws.⁷ This became an issue in the 1930s as more children began to work as film actors. One such child actor, Jackie Coogan, discovered that his parents spent most of his earnings before he had reached adulthood. This ultimately led California to pass and enact Coogan’s Law in 1939.⁸ This law mandates that trust funds be established for a child actor and that a portion of their earnings are contributed to said fund.⁹ However, the law had loopholes that left children financially vulnerable. Hence, in 2000, Coogan’s Law was revised to include savings requirements.¹⁰

Since the initial law, several states have enacted similar legislation to protect child entertainers.¹¹ These protections commonly include work permits or other Department of Labor approval requirements and regulations on the number of hours a child can work and when (usually not during regular school hours).¹² While the aforementioned are the most standard labor law augmentations, there are instances where states have not explicitly expanded their child labor regulations but have included provisions for children employed in the entertainment industry to receive additional benefits, such as paid tutoring in Nevada¹³ and physician approval for infants to work in Kansas.¹⁴

Figure 1 shows the states that have expanded their child labor laws, including the states with specific protections for child influencers. Only 16 states have not enacted laws to protect the labor rights of children working in the entertainment industry.

FIGURE 1. Labor laws for children in the entertainment industry by state.

Laws Specific to Child Influencers

As more children become involved with content creation, there have been rising concerns about potential financial exploitation from family members. Thus, states are beginning to enact legislation that expands their child labor laws to specifically cover child influencers.

The legislation enacted typically requires the parents or guardians of child influencers to establish a trust account and allocate a portion of the child’s earnings from content creation to it. These accounts are inaccessible until the child reaches legal adulthood. They also mandate record-keeping and allow adults to request the deletion of content they were featured in as minors.

In 2024, Illinois became the first state to expand its child labor laws to cover child influencers and vloggers. California and Minnesota quickly followed during the same year. In 2025, Utah passed similar legislation in response to a case of child abuse from a vlogging family. Table 1 provides information on these bills. Of the Southern states, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Virginia have attempted to pass similar legislation. See Table 2 for information about those bills.

TABLE 1. State laws that protect children involved in online, monetized content creation

State	Bill Number	Last Action¹	Summary
California	A.B. 1880 (2024)	Became Public Law on September 26, 2024	Amends California Family Code to include content creators in protections for minors in artistic employment, requiring Coogan Trust Accounts and clarifying employer responsibilities.
Illinois	S.B. 3646 (2024)	Became Public Law July 30, 2024	Among other things, mandates the establishment of a trust account for children in the performance arts and vlogging industries
Minnesota	H.F. 3488 (2024)	Became Public Law, effective July 1, 2025	Mandates compensation and protection measures for minors involved in online content creation. Provisions include trust accounts, record-keeping, and content removal request upon reaching adulthood
Utah	H.B. 322 (2025)	Signed by the Governor, effective May 7, 2025	Mandates the establishment of trusts for minors involved in entertainment, outlines responsibilities for earnings management, and provides rights for content deletion

TABLE 2. Bills from the CSG South region that aim to protect children who are featured in online, monetized content creation

State	Bill Number	Last Action¹	Summary
Arkansas	H.B. 1975 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Regulates content featuring minors, allows for content removal request upon reaching the age of majority, and requires compensation for minors
Georgia	H.B. 418 (2025)	Second Reading	Mandates the establishment of a trust for children employed in performance or creative services, like acting or content creating, ensuring at least 15 percent of their gross earnings are deposited into the account; the accounts are only accessible when the individual reaches the age of majority
Georgia	H.B. 968 (2024)	Second Reading	Requires blocked trust accounts for minors in artistic services, including vlogging and online content creation
Missouri	H.B. 1998 (2024)	Reported favorably by House Committee	Establishes regulations for minors under 16 involved in vlogging, requiring compensation to be set aside in a trust and allowing content removal requests upon reaching adulthood
Missouri	H.B. 706 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Establishes regulations for minors involved in vlogging, requiring compensation and record-keeping, with provisions for content deletion and trust accounts
Missouri	H.B. 832 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Establishes protections and compensation requirements for children under 16 involved in vlogging
Missouri	H.B. 1245 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Requires content creators to maintain records, set aside earnings for minors, and allows minors to request content removal, while prohibiting financial gain from inappropriate content and mandating social media platforms to mitigate risks
Missouri	S.B. 756 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Requires content creators to maintain records, set aside earnings for minors, and allows minors to request content removal, while prohibiting financial gain from inappropriate content and mandating social media platforms to mitigate risks
Oklahoma	H.B. 1016 (2025)	Referred to House Committee	Requires compensation and trust fund establishment for minors featured in online, monetized content and introduced labor laws specific to child influencers
Virginia	H.B. 2401 (2025)	Sent to Governor	Regulates the involvement of children under the age of 16 with online content creation and ensures fair and protected compensation
Virginia	S.B. 840 (2025)	Referred to Senate Committee	Regulates child involvement in content creation, requires compensation be placed into a trust, and establishes enforcement mechanisms
Virginia	S.B. 998 (2025)	Passed Senate with Changes	Amends child labor laws to regulate children under 16 involved in content creation, requiring earnings to be placed in a trust account

Conclusion

As the content creation landscape evolves, so do the regulations and legal practices surrounding it. Children and minors are a particularly at-risk population for mistreatment and financial exploitation. The rise of the creator economy has opened new avenues for revenue and fame, including for youth. A few states have begun to outline, pass legislation, and advocate for protections for these youth. Most legislation that has been enacted requires partial funds to be placed in trust accounts, with access allowed when the child reaches legal adulthood.

High-profile cases, like the Ruby Franke child abuse case, have raised public awareness of the potential dangers of child content creation. The creator economy has seen growth in the form of niche content surrounding child content creators and family content creation, with young children building significant online following and acclaim. While it is a new opportunity for revenue, it often falls on parents and/or guardians to oversee these accounts and content of these minors. This has raised concerns about these minors’ long-term well-being, including the potential for exploitation, loss of privacy, and the need for legal protections as these minors navigate their lives.

End Notes

1. Suleiman, Munirat. 2022. “Is Kidfluencing Child Labor?: How the Youngest Influencers Remain Legally Unprotected.” Columbia Undergraduate Law Review. June 16, 2022.
2. Simon Kemp, “Digital 2024: The United States of America”, Global Digital Insights, 2024.
3. ”The creator economy could approach half-a-trillion dollars by 2027”, Goldman Sachs, April 19,2023.
4. ”8 Passengers”, Speakrj, 2025.
5. ”Utah v. Franke/Hildebrant”, Washington County Utah, 2023.
6. State v. Franke, No. 5D-23-000123 (Utah 5th Dist. Ct. Feb. 20, 2024).
7. “Elaws – FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor.” n.d. Webapps.dol.gov.
8. González, Jennifer. 2022. “More than Pocket Money: A History of Child Actor Laws | in Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress.” Blogs.loc.gov. June 1, 2022.
9. “Coogan Law: Full Text.” 2023. Sagaftra.org. 2023.
10. “SB 1162 Senate Bill – Bill Analysis.” 2025. Ca.gov. 2025.
11. “Child Entertainment Laws as of January 1, 2023.” n.d. DOL.
12. U.S. Department of Labor. 2023. “Child Entertainment Laws as of January 1, 2020 | U.S. Department of Labor.” Www.dol.gov. January 1, 2023.
13. NV Rev Stat § 388D.200 (2024)
14. KS Stat § 38-616 (2024)
15. “Child Entertainment Laws as of January 1, 2023.” n.d. DOL.