A Utah Senate committee is investigating the effects of being a “kidfluencer” and the ethics of putting children in front of the camera for ratings, fame and income.
Shari’s comments come as states across the country are considering child influencer laws in a new light. Three states, including Illinois, Minnesota, and California, have already passed laws to ensure financial and privacy protections for child influencers online.
Utah will be next to consider laws surrounding the child influencer space, as the state has become a hotspot for family-friendly video blogging content in recent years.
Shari points out that even if the children in question are paid, there is no formal mechanism for determining how much.
She said: “There are no laws in place to ensure that child influencers earn money from their work. How do you decide how much a child must earn by appearing in family-friendly content? Children “How much is it worth giving up on this era?”
Her testimony spoke to the negative impact family video blogs can have on young children who don’t have the option of being thrown into an influential space.
“One of our most popular videos is about my eyebrows being waxed out by accident and the whole world seeing me as a crying teenager when I just wanted to mourn in private. I did,” she said.
“As children, we don’t understand the consequences of having our lives filmed and showing it for the world to see.Giving our parents permission to post their lives… In other situations, it is understood that children cannot consent, but for some, the reason is that people think that family video blogs are different. Sexual predators specifically stalk the internet looking for people to influence children. We promise parents are aware of these predators and choose to put their children in jail anyway.” she continued.
