Starting Jan. 1, 2025, California will require social media influencers to pay their children if they appear in at least 30% of their content.

This piece of legislation is an extension on the existing Coogan Law, which was originally created to protect child actors’ earnings. This updated law mandates that parents must allocate 65% of the child’s earnings to a trust account that they can access when they are 18, aiming to prevent situations where minors build income without receiving it. It’s meant to protect minors from being exploited by their parents online, allowing for a portion of parent influencers’ profits to be reserved for the child.

Many speculate that influencers, such as Brittany Xavier, are suddenly moving from California to states like Tennessee to avoid the consequences and financial impact of this new law. Although many believe that Xavier decided to move to avoid fires and the recent mold issue in her house, speculation has risen in her social media comments. In a decade where child exploitation on social media has become more serious, many suggest that laws like this are more relevant than ever. 

As of December 2022, a survey was conducted to research how the masses think of child exploitation in the media. 65% of adults in the United States have felt that children in the media were exploited very often and somewhat often. This percentage continues to grow as family channels have surfaced in popularity over the decade. 

The case of “8 Passenger” mom vlogger, Ruby Franke, has gained much popularity after her arrest, August of 2023. During this time, she pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse. Footage from vlogs, writings from journals and information her eldest children have shared surfaced online and brought light to the situation. Franke would torture her children as she held their heads over toilets and starved them. For the sake of her content, she would also create scripts for them to follow and even made them change their facial expressions if she was not satisfied. 

The world of social media prevails and extends as time passes, and the protection for children’s rights have started to expand as well. The extension of the Coogan Law helps ensure the children’s compensation for their work. The sparkle of fame should not dull a child’s rights and protection.