Kidfluencer industry critique
- New Statesman published a critical analysis calling the kidfluencer economy structurally abusive for children. - The piece argues children often lack rights to their earnings, negotiation power, or recourse against exploitation. - The article uses the Franke scandal as an example and urges stronger protections around consent, pay, and oversight. (newstatesman.com)
A New Statesman essay published in April argues the kidfluencer business is built on children who cannot meaningfully consent, bargain, or control the money earned from their image. (newstatesman.com) The piece lands after a string of state efforts to treat online child performers more like child actors. Illinois became the first state to pass a kid-influencer pay law in 2023, and it took effect on July 1, 2024. (abcnews.com) That Illinois law covers children 16 and under who appear in at least 30% of paid online content over a 30-day period, and it gives them a private right of action if they are not compensated. (abcnews.com) Minnesota followed in 2024 with a law that says a minor is engaged in content creation when at least 30% of a creator’s compensated video content includes the child, and it bars children under 14 from that work under the statute’s terms. (revisor.mn.gov) California added another layer on September 26, 2024, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 764 and AB 1880 to require trust accounts for minors featured in monetized online content and to extend Coogan Law protections to minors employed as online content creators. (gov.ca.gov) The pressure for those laws has grown alongside scandals in family vlogging, where parents can turn ordinary childhood moments into paid content for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and subscription platforms. New Statesman has been warning about that economy since at least November 2023, when it wrote that family vlogging “can never be ethical.” (newstatesman.com) Ruby Franke’s case became the clearest example of the risk. Utah prosecutors said Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins on August 30, 2023, with duct tape on his ankles and wrists and visible wounds. (washco.utah.gov) Prosecutors said officers then found Franke’s 9-year-old daughter hiding in a closet, and said the children had been denied food, water, beds, and contact with other people. On February 20, 2024, a Utah judge sentenced Franke and Hildebrandt to four to 30 years in prison. (washco.utah.gov) Not every proposal has passed. In Washington state, House Bill 1627, which would have protected children featured on for-profit family vlogs, was introduced in 2023, got a public hearing, and was reintroduced in 2024 without clearing committee. (app.leg.wa.gov) The gap the essay points to is narrower than it was three years ago, but it is still a gap: some states now require pay set-asides, while many still leave children dependent on the adults filming them. (gov.ca.gov)
