The First Law to Regulate Family Vlogs on YouTube

Until last week, there was no guarantee that a child who is featured in their family’s monetized YouTube channel would ever see a dime. YouTube Help cites some guidelines for minors, but only about the kind of content they can participate in. Now, vlogging parents in Illinois must open and maintain a trust for their children.

How do Family Vloggers Get Paid?

Once a YouTube channel passes some benchmarks in terms of subscribers, views, and consistency, the people behind the channel can monetize videos that are over ten minutes. They gain revenue from the ads that YouTube places before, during, and sometimes after the video. You can buy an ad-free experience on YouTube by purchasing its Premium package, of which creators get a cut, but not everybody can afford $24.97/month.

The other way that YouTube creators get paid is through brand deals, sponsorships, and the like. Sometimes this is a completely separate part of the video, and sometimes they add the advertisement internally in a creative fashion. It must be clear that it is an ad, or sponsored, but the bigger your following, the more zeroes at the end of your brand deal offers.

Why Do We Need This New Law?

Until this law was signed by Illinois Governor Pritzker, there was no regulation for children who are in YouTube videos. Even if they seem to be enjoying it, investigations have found many instances of child abuse. An extreme version of this is the “Fantastic Adventures” family channel, whose parents were charged with child abuse– both mental and physical– toward their seven adopted kids. NBC News reported in March of 2019 that allegations include beatings, withholding food, or bathroom breaks. There are many examples of known abuse, and you can watch the OutThink Playlist here if you would like more information.

Vloggers with a following akin to the “Fantastic Adventures” channel can easily be paid $10,000 or $20,000 for a brand deal– for one video. And when Illinois resident Shreya Nallamothu was sixteen, she thought the children in family vlogs have a right to a share of the money their presence helped to bring into the family.

There are hundreds of studies showing how children’s brains aren’t yet developed enough to understand that anything posted online can be permanent. There are books and podcasts and even a well-regarded documentary about the reality of living your life online.

How can these kids give their consent? Many family vlogs capitalize on their kids’ life events and trauma, filming and posting it for all to see.

Nallamothu wrote her thoughts on the topic to Illinois State Senator Dave Koehler and a year later it was signed into law.

What Does Illinois’s Law Offer the Kids?

From CNN’s coverage: “Starting July 1, 2024, parents in Illinois will be required to put aside 50% of earnings for a piece of content into a blocked trust fund for the child, based on the percentage of time they’re featured in the video. For example, if a child is in 50% of a video, they should receive 25% of the funds; if they’re in 100%, they are required to get 50% of the earnings. However, this only applies in scenarios during which the child appears on the screen for more than 30% of the vlogs in a 12-month period.”

This law only applies to Illinois, but a similar bill was introduced in Washington state around the same time as Illinois. This bill includes provisions that once a minor comes of age, they can have any videos that include them be deleted. The Washington bill was initiated by then-18-year-old Christ McCarty, and soon after he formed an advocacy site for children of YouTubers.

It’s actually quite easy to write a message to your state senator. Depending on the reception of this law in the first two states, we’ll keep an eye on whether it spreads to other parts of the country.

Photo/Image Credit: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Canva

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Sources:

• Childhood 2.0 documentary, https://www.childhood2movie.com/.
• Chuck, Elizabeth, “Child Abuse Charges Against YouTube Channel Underscore Lack of Oversight for Kids,” NBC News, 21 March 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/child-abuse-charges-against-youtube-channel-s-mom-underscore-lack-n985526.
• DiBenedetto, Chase, “A New Washington state bill takes the first step in legislating rights for child influencers,” Mashable, 17 February 2023, https://mashable.com/article/child-influencer-washington-state-bill
• Murphy Kelly, Samantha, “Illinois Passes a Law That Requires Parents to Compensate Child Influencers,” CNN.com, 16 August 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/tech/kid-influencer-law/index.html.
• United States Senate, https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?Class=1.
• Child Safety Policy, YouTube Help, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801999?hl=en.