An Illinois law requires parents to give 15% of earnings to children who star in their videos

llinois is getting serious about the welfare of child creators. The Land of Lincoln has officially enacted a law that will require to compensate their children if those kids play a significant on-screen role in the family’s social media content.

By the terms of the new law, children are eligible to be paid if they appear in 30% or more of footage across social channels on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms. The resulting payout, which must equal at least 15% of the earnings from those videos, is to be held in a trust until the compensated child reaches the age of 18. At that point, the recipient can also request the deletion of videos they appeared in and can take their parents to court if the demands of the law are not met.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law last year, and it took effect on July 1. There is no planned enforcement for the law other than the options that are given to children once they turn 18.

Several grim cases have led to widespread calls to protect the welfare of so-called “kidfluencers.” In 2017, two infamous channels — Toy Freaks and DaddyOFive — were terminated after investigations suggested that the child stars of those hubs had suffered abuse.

The new law gives Illinois kidfluencers similar protections to those that have existed in film and TV for decades. Child actors in California, for example, have had earnings placed in trusts since the 1939 passing of the Coogan Act

“As we see influencers and content creators becoming more and more of a viable career path for young people, we have to remember that this is a place where the law has not caught up to practice,” said Jessica Maddox, a University of Alabama professor Jessica Maddox told AP last year. Maddox said that kidfluencers “are in desperate need of the same protections that have been afforded to other child workers and entertainers.”

Not all underage creators are subject to abuse. All-ages channels like The McCartys and Ninja Kidz TV have become digital sensations, and companies like pocket.watch and Moonbug help many family channels turn their social media operations into full-fledged businesses.

That growing industry explains exactly why the new Illinois law is so important. The pocket.watch-affiliated toy reviewer Ryan Kaji earned an estimated $26 million in 2019, and the size of his empire has only grown since then. There’s big money coming into the kids’ video space, so it’s only right that the stars of those videos should see some financial returns from their work.