Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sue Your Parents!”.
You want to run this one child influencers can now sue their parents for wage theft. I think there’s some. I think I’m just gon na sit here and look smug. While you read it, Illinois has passed a law ensuring compensation for underage social media entertainers taking effect July next year, if a child under 16 is featured in at least 30 percent of monetized content uh, I’m excited for 29 attendance in upcoming videos, but if they’re featured In at least 30 percent of monetized content in a 12-month period, a percentage of earnings must be placed in a trust account for the child. The percentage is based on the amount of time that that child is featured, if they’re in say 50 of a video. They would be entitled to 25 of that video’s earnings. How does that math work? That seems like an arbitrary video half if they’re in 50 of a video? Yes, they get a quarter of the earnings. I think it’s half of the amount of the video that you’re in okay. I wonder how they came to that number.
I’M not saying that’s a wrong number. I just I’m curious yeah, not a clue uh, while some other states require parents to set aside earnings for child entertainers in movies and television. Illinois is the first state to Target child labor in social media. The idea for the law was reportedly suggested by then fifteen-year-old Shreya nalamathu uh, who felt that parents were putting incredibly intimate and private moments of their children’s lives online and that those children were often too young to fully understand the implications which is 100.
True, very fair and true, like absolutely a thing yeah, I um, I was shocked. You know you know sorry, you know you know how there’s that, like shocking horrifying moment, uh that’s been in TV, a bunch of times and stuff where, like uh, your your new partner comes over to your parents house for the first time and your mom busts out The like little kids album to embarrass you sure I was shocked to see some of the bad takes in the community when we’ve talked about this in the past, like they’re, my kids, what’s the difference between this and you know washing dishes doing chores or, like you Know it’s no one’s business for the state to come in and tell me what how I can raise my kids and it’s like this is not about how you raise your kids. This is about child labor when someone is in a YouTube video, even if it’s a YouTube video where they are playing with something they are working.
If it is monetized, that’s the thing it’s monetized they’re working, I I I do think that something they’ve done well here is that they’ve made the they’ve made the um the trust um allocation based on the actual money that it makes. There’S arguments to be made either way. I think that from like a privacy standpoint from from a hey – I you know now that I’m an adult I I didn’t consent to that um. You shouldn’t have done that. I think, from that standpoint, we’re going to see different litigation if the content didn’t make any money right, but at least if the content does make money, they are getting a piece of it.
Yeah um. But I, but I, but I like that – they’re not just entitled to like an hourly wage. I think that if they are a star and if they are, you know, featured in a significant portion of the video you could over what is it over 30 of the monetized content yeah if they are a star in the content, three percent of the monetized content In a calendar year or 12 month, sorry, no 12 month period, that’s different um and then also so that that enables you to receive some of the cut. And then it is 50 of the percentage of the video that you’re in that’s how the monetization works got it yeah.
I um oh man, no, I’m now I’m torn though, because on the ones where they don’t make any money well, no, they should still be entitled to minimum wage. That’S what minimum wage is, and the other thing too, is that it’s like. Oh, no, it’s just social media or whatever, but like there’s, really strict laws governing how many hours a child can work, whether it can interfere with their education um, how many days they can work over over a given period, and none of that is being adhered to And no they’re, not just your kids, they’re, not your property to just do whatever you want with it’s, not it’s you’re not allowed to be exploitative uh.
This is this is not parenting. This is, this is work right and even with this, even with this cut like this doesn’t address any of those issues yeah. So I guess what I’m trying to say is It’s Beginning, I’m calling it, but not enough.
There’S a lot more coming! Yeah yeah! There’S a lot more coming, and you know what’s really interesting about these numbers – is there’s a lot of like family vlogging channels that have more than four kids. How does that work? I could actually see the spinning beach ball on his brain. Give me the math Luke.
What happens now? Yeah yeah people are starting to list uh they’re, starting to list channels that have a whole black whack load of kids, yeah. Well uh. How do I do the parents take anything, because I I I I think they should probably make something for turning their family into production.
I think you know Kris Jenner probably did okay with all of that, and that’s probably you know yeah mostly to the benefit of that per kid. I don’t know. Jane Reese is an interesting point. Sure I want to hear your take on is uh.
He says, on top of influencers, the laws for types of content of kids being posted by their parents, even just to Facebook for friends and family needs to be tightened up a lot. I know of people that have made Facebook pages uh in the name of their child, who is like zero and then posted things all the way up. Man there’s there’s so many ways to go. It’S very interesting. On the one hand, they might look at it and go wow, it’s so cool to have this, like catalog of you, know everything that I’ve ever done in my life.
I’M sure some people would say that, but then there’s going to be people that are like wow. This is a huge invasion of my privacy. How could you have possibly thought that this was okay yeah, a little rough, I like the email idea.
I’Ve always liked the email idea. Here’S the thing, though, like you’ve got what’s. Okay, tell me this: what is the difference between signing away your kids rights on Facebook and signing away your kids rights on a traditional Media or television production? It’S monetized versus not well, the media I mean either of them could be or couldn’t be. I guess fair enough, so what’s what’s the difference, if people just have power of attorney for their children, is I’m not saying it’s right for people to just post everything about their child on Facebook, I’m just asking.
Is it any different uh someone asked what’s the email idea, I don’t know if this was an original idea of yours? No, it’s not an original idea um. So the the idea is that you set up an email um, and then you email that email like Journal thoughts about the good little fun stories and stuff like that. I haven’t stayed as on top of it, as I would have liked to. I mean there’s still time um, it’s just one of those things that stuff happens and life gets busy and you don’t think to like write a bunch of emails, but um there’s definitely going to be some stuff there. It could be cool too kind of pick it back up and keep going and then like give it to them when they move out or something yeah, it could be kind of neat could be cool. .