Legislation aims to protect children featured in ‘mommy run accounts’

What does 1920s child actor Jackie Coogan have to do with a bill approved last week by a Minnesota House committee?

Coogan was a national sensation after being cast in the Charlie Chaplin movie “The Kid.” His films and the merchandise that came from them made millions for a lot of people, including his father — but not for Coogan himself. The result was what is known in Hollywood as the Coogan Law that requires studios that employ child actors to set aside part of their earnings in a trust that can be claimed when they reach adulthood.

State Rep. Zack Stephenson was aware of that law, as well as a more-recent law passed in Illinois that applies the same protections to children in what are sometimes called “mommy run accounts.” These are social media accounts in which parents feature personal videos of the family and their children.

The DFLer from Coon Rapids introduced the bill approved by the House panel, House File 3488, which would require parents who earn money from accounts on platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube to deposit 30% of the earnings into a trust account. The child featured in at least 30% of the screen time could claim the proceeds in the trust when they reach 18.

Bills similar to Stephenson’s are pending in Maryland, Washington, Pennsylvania, Texas and Nebraska.

Under Stephenson’s bill, parents would have to keep records of how much money was raised from the content and how much has been deposited into the trust fund. That information must be made available to the child. The proposed law would cover content creators over the age of 18 “who create video content performed in Minnesota in exchange for compensation.” It does not cover content created by children who might create their own content once they are old enough to have social media accounts under their own control.

The same bill would set up a right for the same children — once they reach age 13 — to demand the deletion of any images or videos that include them. While some states are proposing that the platform owner be required to delete images on request, HF 3488 puts that legal burden on the creator of the content — likely the parents who created the account, for example.

Sometimes known as child influencers, the subjects of parent-run social media accounts are often featured in video beginning with birth, even before. The accounts generate revenue from product ads and less-obvious payments for product promotion.

Stephenson said there are darker sides of the growth of such video blogs. He cited cases including a Utah woman arrested and charged with child abuse after one of her children was found with wounds and injuries. The account included advice about strict parenting techniques. Other sites include photos of teenage and pre-teen girls that include invitations to view additional photos behind paywalls.

The sites have also spawned organized campaigns urging social media users to avoid such sites because they can exploit children. One of those is called Quit Clicking Kids.

“This bill doesn’t fully address the abuse of kid-influencer accounts, particularly those mommy-run accounts,” Stephenson said. He is looking for ideas “to better regulate, to put guardrails on this. We do already have laws against child pornography, child abuse, child neglect, but this is a new phenomena doing actual harm to real people and we need to take it seriously.”

Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, said she was considering an amendment to specifically address parent-run sites that sexually exploit their children.

“These parents who are exploiting their own children, to me there should be a special punishment for that,” Scott said. “I just think it is unacceptable and I would guess everyone around this table agrees.” 

A companion bill, Senate File 3496, is sponsored by Sen. Erin Maye-Quade, DFL-Apple Valley. Both clarify that using children in family videos is not illegal under state child labor laws.

Before the House judiciary committee approved the bill and sent it to the House Labor and Industry Finance and Policy Committee, it was amended to say that the mechanism for triggering a deletion of images and video is a formal request by children of their parents. The only enforcement for failing to abide by that provision and the requirement to create trust funds and maintain financial records is a civil suit.

Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, wondered if that was the best way to enforce the law should it pass. Most labor protections can be enforced by the state Department of Labor and Industry.

“It does make me a little worried that we’re talking about the only way this is taken care of is a kid suing their parents,” Niska said.

Stephenson said the intent isn’t to have the government enforce it but to instead create grounds for what is termed a private right of action. That is how the Illinois and California laws are enforced.

The tech industry wrote a letter to the committee opposing any provision that would require social media platforms to remove content, preferring to leave that to the creators of the content — in this case parents.

“Although the bill aims to protect the privacy of a young person, it could also result in the opposite effect by creating an implicit requirement for platforms to collect sensitive, personally-identifiable information to authenticate identity, age, and parental relationship in order to prove they are the subject requesting the deletion,” wrote Tyler Diers, executive director, Midwest for TechNet.

“This runs counter to data minimization principles and would be a significant unintended consequence. Mandating the collection and storage of more – not less – sensitive, personally identifiable information on every user raises serious privacy concerns.” The bill in Washington state does put the burden of fulfilling requests to delete images on the internet platforms.