{"id":32643,"date":"2023-01-19T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32643"},"modified":"2023-01-21T05:40:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T05:40:26","slug":"why-arent-there-any-legal-protections-for-the-children-of-influencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-arent-there-any-legal-protections-for-the-children-of-influencers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why aren\u2019t there any legal protections for the children of\u00a0influencers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jessica Maddox<\/a>, University of Alabama<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to sharing content of children on social media \u2013 particularly via sponsored posts and brand deals \u2013 what\u2019s legal isn\u2019t always what\u2019s ethical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influencer Brittany Dawn, who initially gained a following for her fitness workouts before pivoting to religious content<\/a>, recently came under fire for monetizing her foster child on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Dawn has blurred out her child\u2019s image in photos shared \u2013 a stipulation decreed by the U.S. Children\u2019s Bureau<\/a> for foster parents in their social media rules \u2013 she has found a different way to capitalize on being an influencer with a foster child. She includes affiliate links on her posts to promote products like baby monitors. If viewers follow the link and purchase the product, Dawn gets a commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, YouTube family vlogger Myka Stauffer<\/a> has shared a number of details about her children, and has also relayed her experience of adopting a baby boy from China \u2013 who frequently appeared in her videos. (The Conversation reached out to Dawn and Stauffer about these criticisms, but did not receive a response.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is currently illegal. But this practice exists at the intersection of two social media trends: sponsored content and \u201csharenting<\/a>\u201d \u2013 when parents post sensitive information about their children online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are very few safeguards in place to protect the interests of children \u2013 both personal and financial \u2013 from their influencer parents. But the questionable practice of leveraging children for followers, fans and sponsorships is currently experiencing a groundswell of attention. Critiques<\/a> of famous creators like Dawn and Stauffer are becoming more pointed<\/a> and persistent<\/a>, while some of the now-adult children of influencers are pushing back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When kids become a prop<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of social media<\/a>, I\u2019ve spent nearly a decade studying influencers<\/a> and content creators<\/a> and how they blur the lines between entertainment, business and freelance work. Influencers constantly search for a niche, or something to make them stand out amid the immense amount of content online. My own research has examined pet influencers<\/a>, ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) influencers<\/a> and veterinarians who are influencers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showcasing your children is also a niche. And as internet scholar Sophie Bishop has shown, influencers who feature their children sometimes use their kids to pivot the focus of their social media niche<\/a>. They can move from being a fashion or travel influencer in their 20s to becoming a wedding influencer once they\u2019re engaged and to a parenting influencer merely by hitting some of life\u2019s big milestones, taking their built-in audience on the journey with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children, however, cannot consent to being the star of their parents\u2019 show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a child could feasibly find it \u201cfun to be in mommy\u2019s video,\u201d it is unlikely they understand the long-term ramifications of being broadcast to thousands \u2013 even millions \u2013 of followers. The oversharing of images of children is even a concern for many parents<\/a>, not just influencers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the business aspect of sponsored content adds another layer to this complicated issue. Who is protecting children\u2019s financial interests for the money their influencer parents earn off this content? How much money do children earn for their parents by appearing in their content?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the financial ethics, the personal, emotional and mental toll cannot be overlooked. TikTok user @softscorpio<\/a> has talked about her lingering trauma from being a child featured in a parent\u2019s account. Sarah Adams, who goes by @Mom.UnCharted<\/a>, also tackles the issues of child social media exploitation and oversharing, talking about the ethical issues surrounding parent influencers and family YouTube channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Videos making fun of parent influencers also frequently circulate on TikTok, whether it\u2019s through mocking the aesthetics of these influencers<\/a> or humorously critiquing the ways in which parents force their children to work<\/a> to build their brand and appease their following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updating the Coogan Act for the digital age<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1939, California passed the Coogan Act<\/a>. The law, also known as the California Child Actor\u2019s Bill<\/a>, was named for former child actor Jackie Coogan, whom many hail as America\u2019s first child actor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black
The parents of child actor Jackie Coogan squandered most of the fortune he earned. Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He became famous after appearing as Charlie Chaplin\u2019s adopted son in the 1921 film \u201cThe Kid<\/a>.\u201d But when Coogan reached adulthood, he learned that his mother and stepfather had squandered<\/a> the US$4 million he had earned \u2013 what would amount to tens of millions of dollars today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Coogan sued his parents and was able to reclaim only a fraction of what was left of his earnings, the California Legislature passed the Coogan Act. The law<\/a> protects children who have been hired as \u201can actor, actress, dancer, musician, comedian, singer, or other performer or entertainer\u201d and stipulates that their earnings must be safeguarded for them until they reach adulthood. Nine other states have since enacted similar legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some lobbyists and activists<\/a> have called for the Coogan Act to be applied to the children of parent influencers at the federal level, regulations have not yet been adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coogan Act was written to protect children in \u201ctraditional\u201d entertainment<\/a>. However, the lines between \u201ctraditional\u201d entertainment and social media entertainment continue to blur<\/a>, making this distinction less and less sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which protects children from \u201cexcessive labor,\u201d has not been updated to apply to child influencers<\/a>, or the children who regularly appear in the feeds of their parents. There\u2019s a notable distinction between child influencers, who may run their own feeds and businesses<\/a>, and children who are featured by their parents. But the Fair Labor Standards Act protects neither, and even children who run their own social media careers may still have their finances regulated by their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some parent influencers could easily set aside money earned either by or off their kids in trusts or college funds. But there\u2019s nothing in place that specifically requires this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France<\/a> has already passed legislation protecting the commercial use of children under 16 on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard not to see at least some precedent in the Coogan Act, particularly the part that refers to \u201cother performers and entertainers.\u201d With debates about the ethics and exploitation of children by parent influencers gaining steam in the U.S., it will be interesting to see whether there will be legislative updates to the definition of child labor in the digital age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Maddox<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Maddox, University of Alabama When it comes to sharing content of children on social media \u2013 particularly via sponsored posts and brand deals \u2013 what\u2019s legal isn\u2019t always what\u2019s ethical. Influencer Brittany Dawn, who initially gained a following for her fitness workouts before pivoting to religious content, recently came under fire for monetizing her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[132,13352,6085,488,3832,1034,13353,5838,702,7437,1791],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32657,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32643\/revisions\/32657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}