Everyone knows a story of a tragic child star: Kids are unable to advocate for themselves and the entertainment industry is notorious for taking advantage of this fact. This is why the film and television industry has strict legal protections for minors.
However, there’s a new generation of kids being exposed to the same conditions with none of the legal support: the children of “YouTube families.” These vlog and lifestyle channels typically document the day-to-day life of a whole family, kids included.
Minors on social media deserve the same rights and legal protections as minors in the traditional entertainment industry.
Family Fun Pack, one of the most popular family YouTube channels, has nearly 10 million subscribers. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s YouTube Money Calculator—a tool that estimates a channel’s revenue using their subscriber count and average number of views—the channel has the potential to make a staggering $12,000 per video. The family typically posts an impressive two or three videos per week.
Some channels, like Sam&Nia or itsJudysLife, post vlogs almost every day.
Although filming more casual vlog-style videos is different than being on a Hollywood set, these kids are essentially working every day of their lives. While the state of California prohibits a child entertainer from working more than five consecutive days, no such restrictions apply to YouTube.
Shouldn’t these kids be automatically protected? After all, they’re making videos with their families instead of strangers on a set. The reality though, like we’ve seen with former child actors such as Jennette McCurdy, is that sometimes parents in the industry disregard their kids’ welfare. There must be legal protection for all kids in entertainment.
The videos on these channels might feature trips to theme parks, pranks between siblings, or family comedy sketches, but we don’t know the details. How many hours did the kids spend in front of the camera that day? Could they opt out, or is filming considered non-negotiable? Is it a chore like helping clean the dishes? Or are these children forced to be in front of a camera? What percentage of earnings are given to each child? Viewers have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes, and no way to find out.
At its core, YouTube is an entertainment industry just like Hollywood. YouTube family channels are built by parents who can use it to exploit their kids. Their happiness, but also their sick days, meltdowns and embarrassing moments all seem to be fair game.
There are tons of people—YouTube parents, executives, advertisers and shareholders—who profit from these videos. We don’t know if the kids do.
The reality is that those kids are the ones bringing in the money. That’s labour, full stop. Children deserve to be both compensated and protected for their work, just like any other worker would be. That’s the absolute bare minimum that should be offered.
Logistically, applying child protective laws would be tricky. Any kind of verification or accountability system makes content creation on YouTube suddenly much more complicated and expensive.
However, “it’s too hard” is generally a bad reason not to do something important.
The Coogan Law and other child labour laws likely once seemed too complicated to implement, even though they were necessary. With the hectic filming schedules and tight budgets of Old Hollywood, directors and studio executives probably thought there was no time for the frequent breaks and shorter hours that kids need.
Ontario’s Protecting Child Performers Act (PCPA) was introduced back in 2015 which required employers to provide work disclosures, breaks, limited working hours, on-site tutoring, healthy food and more.
The film and TV industry had to change to accommodate these new rules. Why can’t YouTube do the same?
There’s a new generation of kids rising to a fame. They deserve to have someone looking out for them, too.
Feature graphic by Angel Xing
