In a first-in-the-nation law, Illinois now requires that the parents or guardians, of children under age sixteen who are featured in social media content that produces income, to set aside a portion of the income for the child and hold the money in trust until the child reaches adulthood.
The bill was the result of lobbying by children who were involuntarily featured by their parents on social media. While it does not address privacy concerns, it provides financial protections for children whose parents require the child to spend time working social media content that produces income.
The Act is modeled on already existing protections for child actors, and applies content based upon the percentage of video content that features the “likeness, name or photograph” of the child, and applies to video created by the parent or other third parties where the child is featured. For example, if a parent is posting videos featuring their children on YouTube and receiving payment from Google for the videos, then the parent must save a portion of the money for their child.
The percentage of money that must be saved varies by the degree that the child is featured in the video content. When a child is featured in more than 30% of the total amount of video content produced within a 30-day period, then the percentage of gross earnings from the content payable to the child’s trust must be at least one-half of the percentage of time the child is featured in the content. If a child is featured in 50% of content produced, then 25% of the revenue must be set aside and held in trust.
The trustee of the required trust must be a qualified financial institution under the Corporate Fiduciary Act. If the parent fails to hold the required funds in trust, the child would have the right to file a lawsuit against the parent for the amount that should have been set aside, as well as punitive damages and attorney’s fees.