Illinois Is First State To Pass 'Kidfluencer' Law

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Illinois recently became the first state in the U.S. to approve labor protections for young social media stars.

“The rise of social media has given children new opportunities to earn a profit,” said state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, in a news release. “Many parents have taken this opportunity to pocket the money, while making their children continue to work in these digital environments.”

Koehler was among the sponsors for Senate Bill 1782, which was signed into law by the governor Friday and entitles children under 16 featured in vlogs and other online content to compensation under the state's Child Labor Law.

The idea for the legislation came from Shreya Nallamothu, a 15-year-old in Koehler’s district. Nallamothu brought her proposal to Koehler with concerns that money made by child influencers was not protected and that too many young people fall victim to a parent or guardian taking the assets for their own use.

“When scrolling on social media, I always saw young children and families, called family vlog channels, posting videos online,” Nallamothu said in the news release. “After finding that users could make money off of platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, I learned that, often, these kids are made to participate in videos without any guarantee of the income generated from the content.”

The new law requires children whose likeness, name or photograph appear in at least 30 percent of a vlogger’s compensated video content in a 30-day period to receive in a trust no less than half the gross earnings from the content percentage including the child. The law is set to go into effect July 1, 2024.