Why ‘Kidfluencers’ Have So Few Protections — Even As Americans Support Regulating The Industry – By Zoha Qamar (FiveThirtyEight) / Jan 3, 2023
“Kidfluencers” — children whose social media presence is followed and monetized — are a notable part of the growing business of social media. But this industry lacks protections for the children whose personalities and poses rake in an ever-growing amount of clicks and dollars.
Since their inception, social media sites have largely evaded regulation. Even as the platforms have evolved into major sources of income for certain users — with some creators making hundreds or thousands of dollars per post — the law has not caught up to ensure that performers or consumers have the kinds of protections afforded to those in entertainment or advertising. But most Americans do want stronger protections: A YouGov poll from December 2022 found that a majority of Americans thought that child labor laws should extend to kids who are social media influencers, while around two-thirds said that underage influencers are exploited by a parent or guardian at least “somewhat” often.
While influencer culture is commonly associated with TikTok and Instagram today, it predates either platform. Monetizing content through ad placement became an option on YouTube in 2008, and nowadays, there is much more money in the game. Video ads may be common for YouTube, but brand deals and sponsored content rule the game on TikTok, as creators incorporate product placement into their posts. The size of the payouts depend on how large a creator’s audience is, which can be immense: On Instagram, high-profile influencers with over a million followers can make $250,000 for a single post. The same can be said for online content featuring kids. What may have started out as family vlogs — sometimes referred to as “sharenting” — has evolved into a thriving economy of kid personalities. In fact, according to Forbes, two of the top 10 YouTube earners in 2021 were kid-forward accounts: Nastya, then a 7-year-old from Russia, made about $28 million through activity vlogs on YouTube, while 11-year-old American Ryan Kaji raked in roughly $27 million from his toy reviews and unboxing videos. And those figures only include money made directly through ads on the site, as brand deals (or even a toy line) can add millions more.
