Child influencers, who make a lot of money, must now follow same rules as other child stars
A new French law has been passed to protect young influencers operating on YouTube and other social media platforms—a rapidly developing avenue of revenue for many children.
It has become an increasing problem that under 16s are working very long hours online on platforms such as YouTube, without regulation.
The French government unanimously voted to bring in new laws governing how long these children work and what happens to their money. They will now have the same protection as other under 16s who work long hours, as reported by the BBC, such as child actors or singers.
The politician behind the bill, Bruno Studler, told Le Monde that it would make France a pioneer in the rights of child social media stars.
The bill only applies to influencers who earn revenue and the money must be placed in an account in the child’s name, until they come of age.
Upon the child’s request, platforms will also now be obliged to take down all accounts and content uploaded by the child if they decide to be “forgotten” by the internet.
Companies looking to employ child influencers must also do so through local authorities.
As reported by Forbes, in 2018, then seven-year-old American Ryan Kaji (known as Ryan ToysReview) earned $26 million from his toy review YouTube channel. Like many successful YouTube influencers, he moved into merchandising, with a line of collectibles at Walmart and currently has 26.7 million followers.
