'First-Of-Its-Kind' Illinois Law Impacting Children Officially In Effect

Illinois is officially the first state to require child compensation for "sharenting."

According to ABC News , the new legislation, signed into effect by Governor J.B. Pritzker , requires that "children age 16 and under be compensated if, within a 30-day period, they are in at least 30% of a video or online content for which the adult, whether a parent or caregiver, is being paid."

Parents that feature their children on their social media channels and receive compensation are, by law , now required to set aside earnings for their child in a trust fund to tap into when they are 18 years old.

Governor Pritzker signed the law into effect earlier this week in an effort to "create a private right of action for child influencers against their parents that featured them in videos." Brooke Raybould , an influencer from Northern Virginia, has a family vlog-style social media page and is thankful for the ability to earn money online while spending time with her kids.

"It kept me doing something in addition to motherhood that was fun for me and challenging and fueling that entrepreneurial spirit." The influencer and loving mother told Good Morning America that she was earns well over six-figures a year just sharing these vlogs online.

"It felt like I had like struck gold in some ways ... because I can be home with my kids, share my natural life, do some work for a pretty condensed period throughout the day and make a decent living. It was basically like a dream for me." While the "sharenting" law has yet to go into effect in Virginia, Raybould does her best to keep things fair for her children when they participate in her videos.

"I periodically ask them if they feel comfortable, if it's okay and they're very positive."

She continued:

"I understand where it could go south. I'm not to say that it's not necessary that people aren't looking at this and making sure, because you have to be an ethical person no matter what you do ... And we need certain bodies to make sure that people are making the ethical decision."

The law officially went into effect in Illinois on July 1, 2024 as an amendment to the state's current Child Labor Law.