Protect the Kids in the Biz

Over the last 4 decades, the internet has weaved its way into nearly everyone’s daily lives. In most parts of the world, people of any age have access to unlimited information and the opportunity to share their own lives with the entire world on social media. The advancement of the internet has led to the creation of some of the most profitable businesses in the world. While some of the biggest industries on the internet are e-commerce sites, which are companies like Amazon that allow customers to shop millions of products that can ship directly to their door all over the world, individual careers like social media influencers, that document their daily lives, profit off of monetization of their content, and promote brands that sponsor them are also a prevalent industry. The global influencer marketing market has yielded $21.1 billion in 2023 (Dencheva 2023). While it’s clear that the influencer industry is taking off, there is also a major lack in regulations and protections for child influencers who are also in this space. While many social media sites that people use to upload photos, videos, podcasts, and text-content require users to be of a certain age to sign up, there is often no verification or users just need a parent to supervise and run the account. There is also an entire culture of online influencers that are family accounts. These accounts often share video diaries of their families in their everyday lives. With children having no real say or consent in the matter, they just have to adapt to their entire life being shared with the world. All the while, their parents are profiting and benefiting off of their children. One can imagine that issues can arise considering that our government has yet to update our entertainment laws to fit with the new forms of media that children are being exposed to. Our politicians must put attention towards this issue and create regulations to protect underage influencers from financial sabotage or lack of compensation, to ensure their working conditions and hours are standard with other forms of entertainment, and to protect the safety of children in this industry with potentially dangerous or unfit families.

As mentioned earlier, the influencing field has created vast wealth and fame for many. Other industries of fame, like acting, that children are able to participate in have protections like The Coogan Law that gives children a work permit and ensures that a percentage of a child actor’s profits are stored safely for them in trust that they gain access to when they turn 18 (Masterson 577). While one would think that a protective law like this would be universal to all child entertainers, “Minors working as influencers in the United States have no legal right to the money they earn by appearing in content posted by themselves or their parents” (McGinnis 249). This shocking fact instantly calls into question the protection of children in the influencer space. While one would hope that a child’s parent would only make financial decisions in support of their children, it could be very easy for anyone to lose their ethics when the amount of money is so vast. While a parent is often facilitating and assisting in the content creation, i.e. filming, editing, organizing events, managing, and supporting their child, the child is also playing a major role in the content. Whether it’s just them featuring in a simple video, this video is potentially generating thousands of dollars. Without financial protections for these children, a parent with ulterior motives could be using them for financial gain without ensuring their child’s compensation or well-being. Simply updating The Coogan Law to include more avenues of entertainment and media would protect more children and create a safer space online.

With the issue of financial dangers for child influencers also comes the intense pressure of the working life of an influencer. Twenty-six states in America ensure that child actors obtain work permits that create a strict limit on the amount of hours that they are allowed on set and it ensures that they receive an adequate amount of schooling as well (Masterson 603). Translating these rules over to social media is not as simple of a task considering that all social media use is mobile and integrated into daily activities that one might already be participating in. This can be alarming when one considers that a child might wake up in the morning to a camera in their face with millions of viewers on the other side commenting on their every move and action. This is an unprecedented lack of privacy for a young developing mind and calls in to question the severe dangers that can occur from this exposure. One of the main issues that has been amplified by the internet is body image and shaming. With the promotion of the ideal thin body type being enforced in our society, opening a child up to the intense criticism of the world without their knowledgeable and sufficient consent could be harmful.

In 2020 there was a study that examined the mental state of 210 girls with an average age of 15 who are exposed to online body ideals and expectations. After hours of mediation and interviewing the girls, researchers concluded that there is a positive association between adolescent girls who participate and frequent in the perusing of close friends and celebrities online and having a negative body image. The study reveals that adolescent girls comparing themselves to celebrities has the most negative impact on their mental health (Scully 2023). One can imagine the mental impact that could occur in the opposite scenario. With severe damages occurring when a young child is just being exposed body standards that are in the media, imagine the potential dangers that could happen when that child’s body is the spectacle being discussed. This horrible and terrifying side of the internet is one of the most damaging and threatening. Publicizing and posting someone that is underage at a large scale can have detrimental effects. The absolute most terrifying problem is of predatory behaviors that have endangered some child influencers in the past and continue to affect them today. In 2019, YouTube had to go as far as deactivating the comment sections of all channels focusing on content with children because of many instances of anonymous users commenting obscene sexual phrases or even time stamping points throughout the video that were revealing of the child (Tarvin 2022). This absolutely disgusting behavior had to be resolved and removing the comments was the best way for YouTube to prevent this issue, but it only hides it. These children are still being exposed to so many people and the intentions of them are unknown. Strict policies and regulations to prevent these dangers are necessary.

Of all the concerns mentioned before, influencer families that are unfit and have actually been accused of physically abusing their children have also come out in recent years. One of the most notable of these is the story of the family channel on YouTube, “8 Passengers”. This was a family vlog channel that promoted conservative and Mormon beliefs that at its peak had amassed over 2.5 million subscribers. The mother of the family, Ruby Franke, documented the lives of her six children and her husband while she was raising them. After her separation with her husband, Ruby started a parental guidance show with a partner who was a family therapist named Jodi Hildebrandt. While she was not licensed, Jodi shared her ideas and with Ruby created the life-coaching service ConneXions, to spread their beliefs to the masses. What seemed like a wholesome life for this family when the cameras were on, was actually a very dark reality when they turned them off. Over the multiple years of Ruby’s time online, many viewers pointed out aspects of her parenting styles that seemed unethical, but at the time any online comments or criticism were just speculation. In September of 2023, Ruby Franke was charged with six counts of felony child abuse. On August 30, “Police found one of Franke’s children with open wounds after escaping from Hildebrandt’s home, and another one of her children in similar malnourished condition at Hildebrandt’s home” (Yang 2023). A horrible situation like this is nearly impossible to imagine occurring from something as simple as social media, but the greed and selfishness of some individuals can truly be shocking. While this is such a rare instance, this tragedy reveals the absolute worst possible outcome of an influencer child. Ruby was using her children for money and success but was mistreating them the entire time. Preventing risks like these from affecting child influencers starts with small regulations and rules.

While some might say that creating laws limiting parents from posting their child online interferes with their right free speech and prevents their ability to create a luxurious life for their child, regulating and protecting the rights of children in the influencer space only limits their time working and ensures a healthy work balance for the child. Anyone could argue that the struggle of a child influencer is worth it because of the financial reward and lifestyle it can create for them. Family therapist Frida Skog researched the link between economic status and children’s well-being in 2018. From this research she observed that one of the main issues for children raised in poorer families is that, “Poor children may be required to take on adult responsibilities early on in life, and assume adult roles in their family networks” (Skog 921). What is interesting about the industry of influencers is that with more success usually requires more of an active focus on their content. This would essentially mean that the child influencers aren’t actually benefiting as much as one might think from their fortune. Also, with no laws regulating how their parents choose to spend their earnings, child influencers are not ensured this success permanently and have to hope that their content continue to bring in profit into their adult years.

Regulations and protections ensuring that underage influencers are protected from the potential lack of financial compensation for their work, that their working conditions are standard with other types of entertainment like child acting, and to prioritize the safety of children in this industry with potentially dangerous or unfit families should be a main priority for politicians. All of these dangers have occurred countless times and without government officials fighting for this issue, it may only progressively get worse for the future of our children online. Implementing similar laws that have helped ensure the safety and well-being of child actors will greatly improve the current state of this industry. The internet is something that is not going to go away, therefore we as a society have to adapt our ideologies and laws to ensure that our children are safe from the real threats that can arise when these online spaces are not regulated.