The children of families who chronicle their lives on video for compensation — known as vloggers — are set to receive new labor protections under a first-in-the-nation law awaiting Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) signature.
Similar to child actor laws, the bill amends Illinois’s child labor statute to guarantee kids under 16 a portion of their parent or guardian’s gross earnings from paid online videos.
The forthcoming law arrives amid increased public scrutiny of family vloggers, a term that combines video and blogging, and the effect on a generation whose childhoods have been monetized by their parents on social media.
Illinois Sen. David Koehler (D) said he sponsored the bill after a 15-year-old constituent concerned about child influencers brought the idea to him.
“We have to listen to people who are this age, who are really tuned into this,” Koehler told Pluribus News. “This never would have come across my consciousness.”
“I’m just thrilled that we were able to do this and have really bipartisan support,” he said.
The Illinois bill was modeled on legislation first introduced in Washington State last year and that was reintroduced again this year but has not passed.
That legislation was spurred by Chris McCarty, a Seattle college student who got interested in the subject after reading about YouTuber Myka Stauffer, who chronicled her adoption of an autistic child from China and then later gave him up.
McCarty, who goes by they/them, launched the website Quit Clicking Kids as part of their Girl Scouts Gold Award project.
In an interview with Pluribus News, McCarty called passage of the Illinois law an important first step toward protecting children who grow up in vlogging households.
“I’m hoping that Illinois can serve as a model for other states,” said McCarty, who testified in favor of the Illinois bill.
Under the bill, the new protections would be triggered when a child appears in at least 30% of a vlogger’s paid video content within a 30-day period. Appearance is defined broadly to include the child’s likeness, name or photograph. If the child is the subject of an “oral narrative” in a vlog, that would also count as an appearance.
Vlogging parents would be required to keep a log of their child’s appearances, including the total number of minutes they appear in the videos, and make that log available to the child on an ongoing basis.
Like the Coogan Act for child actors, the law would require vloggers to create a trust account and deposit a set percentage of their earnings into the account for their children to access once they are 18.
The requirements would not apply to youth over age 16 or to teens who produce their own vlogs. Under the law, children of vloggers could sue their parents for damages for failing to comply with the law.
The law would take effect in July 2024.
Koehler said the initial version of the bill received some pushback from the tech industry. Ultimately, a provision that would have allowed youth once they reach 18 to request that online platforms permanently delete videos depicting them was removed from the bill.
Koehler called that an “unresolved issue” that he wants to address in follow up legislation.
“That is a much tougher piece because once it’s out there, how do you really get that back,” Koehler said.
Stephen Balkam, the founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, a tech industry-supported nonprofit, praised the legislation and said he was “pleased and delighted that it passed.”
“My only wish and hope is that this was a national law, not a state law,” Balkam said.
In a statement, Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough said the governor intends to sign the bill in the coming months.
“The internet provides more opportunities for children to display their creativity than ever before,” Gough said in an email. “In the event that minors are able to profit from that creativity, they deserve to be shielded from parents who would attempt to take advantage of their child’s talents and use them for their own financial gain.”