Historic “Child Influencers” Law Starts July 1st In Illinois

It's not unusual to see kid social media stars and now the state of Illinois is stepping in to help them.

It's a long ongoing debate about parents using their kids for likes, follows, and making money on their social media channels. Many kids themselves watch some of the "kid-fluencers" on YouTube or other outlets. Kid-fluencers do anything from reviews to dances.

Several new laws are going into effect in Illinois on July 1st and that includes the nation's first one specifically to protect child social media stars.

SB 1792 in Illinois will entitle kids under 16 years old to get a portion of their gross earnings from social media. Parents of the kid-fluencer will be required to maintain records of how many times their kid appeared in social media content. The kid's earnings have to be set aside in trust accounts until the kid turns 18.

And the kid can take legal action against their parents when they turn 18 if they were in monetized social media videos as a child and were not properly paid at the time.

Many states have laws for child entertainers (like singers and actors) but this Illinois law is the first for kid social media stars specifically.

Experts think that more legislation around kiddos on monetized social media will evolve after this becomes law on July 1st. It is likely to open up the conversation about kids consenting to be in videos and on social media too, which will greatly impact family vlogs that document very personal moments.