Child influencers in California have gained legal protections after Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 764, making California the third state in the country to protect the monetary gains of child influencers. Gov. Newsom was joined by Teen Vogue cover star Demi Lovato, who just released a documentary called Child Star on the pressures of being a child actor, at the signing.
SB 764, which was introduced in December of 2023, dictates that content creators who feature minor children in at least 30% of their content must set aside a proportionate percentage of the earnings from that content to be held in a trust account until the child is 18.
“In order to build a better future for the next generation of child stars, we need to put protections in place for minors working in the digital space," Lovato said in a press release about the bill, noting the law "will ensure children featured on social media are granted agency when they come of age and are properly compensated for the use of their name and likeness.”
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Steve Padilla, tells Teen Vogue that the bill is modeled after the state’s landmark Coogan Law, which was put into effect in 1939 to protect the earnings of child actors.
“Protecting children from all forms of exploitation and abuse is one of our highest callings in government, but our laws have not always kept up with emerging technology,” Sen. Padilla says. “In the early 20th century, California took action to protect child actors from financial abuse, with SB 764 now made into law, we expand California’s landmark labor protections to 21st century performers as well.”
With the signing of this bill, California joins Illinois and Minnesota as the only states in the country to have protections for influencer children.
To read more about Lovato’s experience with child stardom, check out our profile here.
Before the bill was passed, Padilla told Teen Vogue that it was “long past time that we put some framework in place to look out for [child influencer’s] finances and prevent them from being exploited." Jackie Coogan, who inspired Coogan's Law, worked through his childhood and upon reaching adulthood, realized he didn’t have access to any of the money he had worked for as a child star because those earnings solely belonged to the parents of minor children. Coogan went on to sue his mother and former manager and the Coogan Law was put into effect. Though child influencers may find themselves doing similar work as child actors do, they had previously been left largely unprotected legally.
This story was first published in December 2023 when the bill was first introduced, and has since been updated.
