Important Information for Parents of Child Influencers in Illinois

 Posted on September 17, 2024 in Child Custody

In this day and age, content creation is so common that it is almost strange not to have your own channels. Some influencers - children and adults alike - have as large a following as famous singers and movie stars. When popular influencers’ posts are combined with affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and subscriptions, serious money can be made.

For some children, a fun casual interest in creating online content can turn into a profitable career very quickly. However, parents of minor children who appear in paid online content need to know the laws regulating their work. A new law recently enacted in Illinois requires you to compensate your children when they appear in money-earning posts. To learn more about how this could impact you, speak with a knowledgeable DuPage County, IL family law attorney.

What Are Parents of Child Influencers Obligated to Do?

Amendments to Illinois’s Child Labor Law now require parents to pay their children if certain conditions are met, including:

• They are 16 years old or younger.
• They appeared in at least 30% of the videos you made over a 30-day period.
• The videos they appeared in earned you money.

You need to place this payment in a trust in the child’s name that they can access when they turn 18. Parents also need to provide thorough records of the trust to their child, including details about the content they created, compensation received for it, and the funds placed in the trust.

Do I Need to Pay My Child?

There are several conditions your child needs to meet before you are required to set funds aside for them in a trust. These include:

• They are 16 years old or younger
• They appeared in at least 30% of the videos you made over a 30-day period.
• Those videos earned you money.

The calculation is a bit complicated, but if your child meets these conditions, they should be paid half of the money earned in those videos for the part of the video they were in. If they were in an entire video that earned $100, they should be paid $50. If they appeared in 5 minutes of a 10-minute video that earned $100, they should be paid $25.

Schedule a Free Consultation with a DuPage County, IL Parental Responsibility Lawyer

If your child is an online influencer, you need to make sure any income-generating activity they do complies with Illinois’s child labor law. A dedicated Wheaton, IL family law attorney can review the situation and guide you as you navigate the exciting and developing industry of online content creation. As laws develop to address new issues in our society, Goostree Law Group monitors all these developments to give our clients the representation they deserve. Call us at 630-364-4046 to schedule a free consultation.