Latest news with #DougOwens
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Yahoo
Utah Passed a Law to Protect Child Influencers
Cavan Images Utah, has become the latest state to legislate protections for child influencers, after Governor Spencer Cox signed HB 322 into law. State Rep. Doug Owens (D-UT) first opened the discussion on HB 322 in October of 2024. The hearing featured comments from Shari Franke, the 21-year-old daughter of former YouTube vlogging royalty and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke. 'I don't come today as the daughter of a felon, nor a victim of an abnormally abusive mother. I come today as a victim of family vlogging,' she said. 'My goal is not to present any idea of a solution to this problem, but to shed light on the ethical and monetary issues that come from being a child influencer. There is no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger.' Though there isn't data on how many mom influencers and family vloggers live in each state, experts point to Utah as a hot bed for these kinds of content creators. 'Utah is ground zero for mom influencers,' says Jo Piazza, host of the podcast Under the Influence, which examines the role of mom influencers. 'It's where the movement started and there are likely more mom influencers in Utah than anywhere else in the country. The fact that the state is cracking down is a huge deal and I think we will see other states follow suit by instituting their own protections. It still isn't enough to regulate this industry, but it is a good start.' Under the new Utah law, parents who make at least $150,000 per calendar year and feature their minor children in monetized or sponsored social media content must maintain a record of that content for at least two years and establish a trust into which a percentage of any earnings must be transferred to be held until the child reaches the age of 18. The formula for the percentage of earnings involves a calculation between the minor's earnings, the paid minutes featuring the qualified minor, and the preceding month's income from social media, among other factors. The Utah legislation also stipulates that, upon reaching the age of 18, an individual may 'request that a content creator delete or edit any social media content' featuring the individual as a minor. Though there are laws addressing the profits of influencer kids in Illinois, Minnesota, and California, only the Minnesota law includes the privacy protections that are present in the Utah law. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kids featured in their influencer-parents' social media would have protections under this new bill
A bill that would provide protection for minors involved in entertainment and in social media content has been introduced in the Utah Legislature. The bill would help financially protect child actors and children featured in their parents' social media content. It also allows kids who appear in social media content to eventually ask for that content to be deleted. HB322, 'Child Actor Regulations' is sponsored by Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek. Owens said that since Utah is one of the top states for generating family oriented social media content, this bill is important in helping to protect those kids. According to Owens, the bill does two main things. The first is it has parents protect their kids financially. This applies to both traditional actors and kids who are in social media content that generates revenue. It requires parents to put aside a share of the income into a trust for the kid to have when they reach adulthood. 'If people are making money from their kids, then the kids ought to get a share of that income at least. That's one way to protect them, at least a little bit,' Owens said. The second thing the bill does is it allows these kids who are in social media content to delete content when they turn 18. This can be things that are embarrassing or things that they just don't want out on social media anymore. This bill gives them the power to remove that content from a social media platform. 'Well, it's only fair that they should be protected financially and then if they find something embarrassing, I think you should have the right to take it down if you change your mind about how other people put you on social media,' Owens said. The representative said he first started drafting this bill about a year and a half ago after a mom in his district whose child was in a commercial reached out to him. He later decided to add kids involved in social media to the bill as well. 'Social media folks got involved, because they thought, well, if you're going to protect actors in traditional media, why not also protect performers in social media context?' Owens said. According to Owens, this bill doesn't specifically have anything to do with the Ruby Franke case, but he did mention Shari Franke's plea for protections of children in social media. He said this bill acts as a starting point for protecting children featured in their parent's social media content.
