Managing Screen Time: Protecting Kids’ Likeness Online
Child influencer laws have been introduced across the country. Although new to many, the basis for these laws is by modifying Coogan laws, which give children actors financial rights for the work they have done.
Attribution
Josh Rose on Unspalsh
With singer and former-child actor Demi Lovato by his side, on September 26, 2024 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two pieces of legislation into law: SB 764 and AB 1880. This is not new or unusual for a governor, but it is significant for the children influencers and actors that flock to the state for success in the entertainment industry because they expand the protections of the Coogan account for child content creators. This is only the latest state to expand the protections for child content creators.
Well, what is a Coogan account exactly? The Coogan Law is named for Jackie Coogan. Jackie Coogan was a child star discovered by Charlie Chaplin, and he starred alongside him in the 1921 movie “The Kid” when he was only four years old. After his breakout role, Coogan’s success had skyrocketed to the point that the Washington Post considered him to be “the nation’s no. 1 box office attraction” to the point that “[he] had the flu in New York and it pushed the President off the front pages.” His parents retained all of the earnings he had made as a minor.
In 1938, at 28, after his acting career had taken a turn, he sued his mother and stepfather for $3-4 million after he accused them of leaving him penniless, and spending the earnings he had made. Ultimately, he lost the court battle against his mother and stepfather, and recovered less than $150,000 of his original earnings. But a year later, California enacted the California Child Actor’s Bill (or Coogan Law), establishing that under judicial discretion, some of the child’s gross earnings be set aside in a trust fund that they could only reach at the age of the majority. Modern modifications were made in 2000, which specifically denoted that 15% of gross earnings should be set aside as a blind trust account for the child, and finally established that earnings made by minors belonged to them, regardless of judicial discretion.
Coogan accounts have only been applied to the entertainment industry hubs: California and New York. But in 2023, the tides shifted, and other states began to recognize that there might be a need to protect child content creators from the same financial plight that Jackie Coogan faced nearly a century before, especially if they were featured in online content. In light of this, and modeling a system based on the Coogan law, Illinois became the first state in the country to pass legislation to protect children whose likeness is used in content created specifically for the Internet. The law requires that based on the percentage the child is featured in the video, 50% of the earnings made from the video are to be set into a block trust account that they would be able to access at 18 if the child is in 30% of videos over the course of the year. The law also includes a private right of action for the child to sue over the “backpay” for the loss of earned income. A similar law was passed in Minnesota, and is set to go into effect on July 1, 2025.
However, California’s passage of SB 764 and AB 1880 is significant because California is the heart of the entertainment industry, and these modifications explicitly modify the original Coogan law. The Child Actor’s Bill creates a precedent for other states to not only adopt child influencer laws but also to support the creation of Coogan-esque laws in other states outside of New York and California. A significant supporter of this legislation was the SAG-AFTRA union, which is one of the largest unions representing individuals across the media industry, recognizing the need to protect child actors and influencers in this capacity.
Other states have followed suit and introduced child influencer laws, but few have passed legislation. In Maryland, a law was introduced to allow children featured in online content creation to “have the right to be forgotten” and to have the content deleted. Other states that have introduced this type of legislation include New York, Georgia (another hub of the entertainment industry outside New York and California), New Jersey, Utah, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, and Missouri.
This is not the end of protecting children’s likeness online, so do not forget to like, comment, and subscribe!