COLUMBUS, Ohio — Officials in Ohio are stepping in to safeguard children who appear in online videos.
The rules for working kids, especially when their videos are all over the internet, haven’t been clearly defined yet. Lots of these online videos show children, and sometimes, their parents make money from them.
“Social media platforms are the new path for turning child labor into profits,” said state Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown). “Beyond the traditional concerns of privacy, this money-making opportunity raises serious questions about the legal rights and protections of these children.”
Alyson Stoner, who was once a child performer on the Disney Channel and comes from Ohio, talked about her experiences of growing up in the public eye.
“Personally, I’m still managing long-term consequences to my mental, emotional, physical and financial well-being,” Stoner said at a press conference Tuesday. “200 films and projects later, as an adult, I discovered zero dollars in a bank account due to my finances being unknowingly unprotected and mishandled.”
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Usually, children in the entertainment industry have some level of protection through a union.
“And there’s no union in existence for digital media,” Stoner said.
The proposed Kidfluencer Protection Act aims to make sure that when children appear in monetized online videos, a portion of the earnings is saved for them until they’re 18.
But it’s not about every video with kids online. The focus is on those videos that make money. The amount saved would be based on how much the child is featured in the video, taking into account their appearance, name, or photo, and then calculating it as a percentage of the video’s total earnings for the year.
“The ones when a family is being compensated or being paid to produce images that involve their child,” McNally said.
Additionally, the law would give young influencers the right to have videos they’re in taken down once they reach adulthood.
“It’s worth getting ahead of before we watch a new pipeline for child exploitation take shape right on our phones,” Stoner said.
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Next, the Kidfluencer Protection Act will be assigned a number and reviewed by a House Committee.