In a move aimed at protecting the burgeoning number of child influencers on social media, Oklahoma might soon join the ranks of states like California and Illinois in setting legal safeguards for minors in the digital realm. The proposed House Bill 1016, championed by Representative Michelle McCane of Tulsa, seeks to address the often-overlooked intersection of children and online content creation. McCane, with backing from her background in education, positions her bill as an effort to preemptively shield kids from being taken advantage of in the rapidly expanding industry of digital entrepreneurship.
Under the bill, specifics such as the content creator’s use of a minor's likenesses in over 30% of their compensated videos in a month or compensation equalling or exceeding 10 cents per view set the benchmarks for what constitutes monetized use of a child's image. As reported by The Oklahoman, the bill also mandates that profits be set aside in trust for minors, and introduces the right for those aged 13 and older, to request content removal from online platforms, a stipulation that extends the notion of consent in the digital sphere to the young creators themselves.
Children's advocacy is taking a digital turn with these proposals, and Oklahoma is catching up to the national discourse on the matter, according to Joe Dorman, CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. "Oklahoma is one of seventeen states that does not have any laws on the books that protect children from creative content that is generated by their parents," McCane told News 9, highlighting the neglect of legal attention to this particular genre of child labor.
Such measures reflect wider trends as new legislation across various states seems to reflect society's growing concerns over the complex interplay between technology, privacy, and individual rights. For instance, starting in 2025, California will enforce laws to curb unconsented AI replication of Hollywood stars, alongside empowering child social media influencers to sue for a share of earnings, measures that could potentially resonate with the ethos of McCane's bill, KCRA reported.
