On social media, children are everywhere. And we’re watching.
In the traditional entertainment industry, children are protected by federal and state laws. These protections should be extended to child influencers, who are currently vulnerable to exploitation.
A Pew Research Center study found that videos that featured a young child had on average three times as many views as videos that did not feature a young child. A content analysis of 5,253 Instagram posts from ten motherhood influencers, along with self-reported data from these influencers, revealed that sponsorships and product advertisements were present in 46.4% of posts featuring children.
Several prominent family influencers have been convicted of child abuse. In December of 2023, family vlogger Ruby Franke of the popular “8 Passengers” YouTube channel was convicted of four counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse. Mike and Heather Martin of “DaddyOFive” and Machelle Hobson of “Fantastic Adventures” have also been charged with child abuse.
Even if the parents of child influencers are not abusive, sharing images and videos of children on social media can still lead to negative consequences. In one instance, videos of Jaquelyn Paul’s toddler daughter “garnered significant attention and were saved tens of thousands of times by viewers.” They also “attracted inappropriate comments from adult men.”
To many family influencers, no moment is too personal. Cam Barrett told The Washington Post, “I was told to look sicker for the camera. I was told if I look too happy, I have to take another picture to look like this, or like this … I was hit by a drunk driver, and she right off the bat put a phone in my face to take pictures to put online.”
In 2021, YouTuber Jordan Cheyenne published a vlog about her family’s dead dog. An unedited portion of the vlog showed her telling her son how to pose for the thumbnail. “Look like you’re crying,” Cheyenne said. “I am crying,” the child replied.
Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism said that child influencers are “being told how to act and told what to say and do for their parents’ pay and profit, but there are no restrictions the way there would be for a movie or a TV show.”
Child influencers have responsibilities such as meeting deadlines, showcasing certain products and setting aside time specifically for content creation. They are “effectively bound by contracts” to provide these services.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), through its contracts with production companies, imposes a maximum hour restriction on minors working on set, as well as required time for rest, recreation, and meals.
Additionally, The Coogan Law of California requires at least 15% of a child performer’s earnings to be deposited into a Coogan Account, which is a blocked trust fund to be safeguarded until the child turns 18.
These legal protections do not apply to child influencers.
One parent reported that brands were paying between $10,000 to $15,000 for a promotional Instagram post, around $45,000 for a sponsored YouTube video and between $15,000 and $25,000 for a thirty-to-ninety-second “shout-out” in a longer video. In many states, under current law, none of this money is required to go to the child featured in the video.
Aside from possibly not receiving any compensation for their work, child influencers are unable to consent to having their lives shared online. A 16-year-old former child influencer stated, “You’re selling your life, your privacy, your body and stories to the entire world, and as a child, you’re involuntarily giving up all of that. You’re selling your childhood.”
Around the world, legislation exists to remedy this issue. In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation, also known as the right to erasure, allows individuals to petition for their personal data to be erased from the internet. In France, legislation explicitly allows minors to assert their right to erasure. Video platforms are required to take down videos of a child upon the child’s request, regardless of parental consent.
In the U.S., some progress is being made towards protecting child influencers. In 2023, Illinois became the first state to regulate child influencers. The bill “requires that children age 16 and under be compensated if, within a 30-day period, they are in at least 30% of a video or online content for which the adult, whether a parent or caregiver, is being paid.” This idea was inspired by Shreya Nallamothu, who was in high school at the time.
Nallamothu, who is not an influencer herself, reached out to Senator David Koehler after discovering that no legislation existed in the U.S. to protect child influencers. As of March 2025, Utah, California and Minnesota have passed similar legislation.
There is still work to be done. Child influencers deserve legal protections in every state. Using children as money-making props for social media violates their fundamental right to privacy and jeopardizes their safety. In most states, these children are effectively unpaid laborers. We wouldn’t allow adults to work in these conditions, so why do we allow children to?