Kidfluencers: Call for legislation to protect child influencers and stop them becoming child labour victims

A project has been launched calling for regulations for child social media influencers, amid concerns that some could become victims of digital child labour.

University lecturer Doctor Francis Rees launched the project after researching the impact of digital child labour on child performers under the age of 13 on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Her research uncovered that pre-teens who are working in the industry, which are sometimes referred to as 'kidfluencers', are being exposed to as many as 32 types of harm. These include the impact it has on their school attendance and attainment, as well as a lack of employment benefits most other child performers would expect, such as financial remuneration, controlled working hours, insurance and health and safety measures.

Under existing UK laws, child influencers are underage and therefore do not officially manage their platforms. Instead, their parents or guardians act as a conduit and not only manage their account but also curate their content. There is no legislation or regulations for child influencing, however, unlike for child modelling or acting.

Dr Rees, who is from Dublin in Ireland and lectures at the University of Essex, hopes to address these harms by creating new guidelines for parents and guardians within the influencer industry to follow.

To aid with the creation of these guidelines, parents and guardians of child influencers are being invited to complete an anonymous survey to provide their opinion on the risks Dr Rees has identified, as well as give their advice on how they mitigate such risks.

Dr Rees said: “Parents have seemingly become a pseudo-employer and are largely responsible for assessing the risk to their child when planning and producing content. Navigating these issues can be very complex, so it is vital we start a dialogue around making the industry safer for children who appear online.

"I hope, by involving parents, we can develop a ‘best practice’ approach that not only works for everyone, but puts the rights of the child at the very centre of everything.”

Dr Rees' Child Influencer project has been lauched at South East Technological University (Setu) in Carlow. It is set to run until September, when Ireland’s first influencer degree is due to begin.

Other risks Dr Rees identified include increased exposure to identity fraud, invasion of privacy and increased exposure to bullying and harassment. She also highlighted a lack of financial protection for the money made from content created with 'kidfluencers'.

She told The Times that some parents were earning "six-figure” wages from their child influencer offspring. “We’ve got parents who’ve paid off their mortgage from child influencing,” she added. “Legislation would be able to deal with the finances. A child model or child actor would usually have that money put in a trust, whereas a child influencer doesn’t have that same protection.”

As part of her research, Dr Rees also identified four categories of child influencing behaviours. She explained: “We see people who have a story to tell. For example the child has special education needs or the parents have been through surrogacy or are a same-gender couple.

“We see people who aspire to be influencers and bring their children into the culture and also people who already have their own fame and are introducing [their] children to their lifestyle. The fourth category is people who are trying to promote a child as some sort of ‘#futurepro’, such as the next Tiger Woods or Serena Williams.”

Countries including France and Belgium have recently introduced legislation to protect child influencers, which has influenced Rees’s work to date. She is now hoping to help similar legislation pass in Ireland.

Fiona Jennings, head of public policy at the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said she was concerned by the lack of safeguarding measures for child influencers. She said: “Where parents and carers are managing the account of their child who is under 13 years of age for the purpose of promoting and selling products, there ought to be robust guidance in place to ensure children are protected from being exploited but also that their safety is paramount.”

The project has scope to be applied not only throughout the UK, but also internationally in scope. The Irish aspect has, however, been funded through the University of Essex International Impact Fund.