This week, a unique law came into effect in the state of Illinois that requires influencers to pay their children to appear in video content.

The first law of its kind was passed last year and is now part of the state's child labor laws. It requires children under 16 to be compensated if they appear in 30% or more of the paid content their parents create.

Parents and guardians must set aside money for the child in a trust fund based on what percentage of the video the child owns, according to the law. The children can access the trust fund once they turn 18.

The inspiration for the law came from high school student Shreya Nallamothu, who brought the issue to the attention of her senator, Dave Koehler.

Nallamothu (Town) said last August When the bill came into force, she said she got the idea while watching family vlogs on YouTube and TikTok.

“After discovering that users could earn money from platforms like YouTube and TikTok, I learned that these children are often forced to participate in videos with no guarantee of the revenue generated from the content,” said Nallamothu. “I wanted to work with Senator Koehler to protect the money these children rightfully earned.”

Some parents who run popular accounts for their children can receive thousands of dollars for a single post, but before this law, their children were not entitled to any compensation.

Charcoal burner to Fast Company that the law was modeled on the Jackie Coogan Law of 1939, which protected the earnings of child actors. It was inspired by Coogan, who learned that almost all of the money he earned as a child actor had been spent by his parents.

The Illinois state law comes at a time when influential parents are increasingly under scrutiny for putting their children front and center online.

Nallamothu told Fast Company that she was particularly moved to act after seeing a video in which the LaBrant family vloggers pranked her daughter and said they would give away the family's puppy.

“That really upset me because she is obviously too young to really understand the consequences of what is being done to her,” Nallamothu said.