Specialist
If your campaign features a child, the contract is the deliverable.
Family content is one of the highest-performing formats in the creator economy and the one most likely to stall in legal review. Usually not because anyone did anything wrong — because nobody could produce the paperwork proving they hadn’t.
I managed a family with two child creators through brand, hair, book and television deals for two years. Everything below comes from running those deals, not from reading about them.
The landscape
Where the law actually is.
| Jurisdiction | Statute | Status | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | SB 1782 | In force — 1 July 2024 | The first US statute giving child creators earnings protection, modelled on the 1939 Coogan Law. Vloggers who feature a minor under 16 in monetised content must set aside a share of the compensation in a trust the child can claim at 18. |
| California | AB 1880 / SB 764 | In force | Extends existing Coogan protections to content creators, and requires trust accounts where a minor appears in a meaningful share of monetised content. |
| Minnesota | HF 3488 | In force | Trust-account requirements plus a right for the child to request deletion of content featuring them once they reach majority. |
| Sixteen states and counting | Various | Proposed or advancing | Legislation modelled on the above is in motion across the country. The direction of travel is settled even where the statute is not. |
This is a summary for planning, not legal advice. Obligations turn on where the family lives, where you film, and how the content is monetised — your counsel makes the call, and I give them what they need to make it.
Scope
What gets handled.
Guardian consent, in writing
A minor cannot bind themselves to a commercial agreement. The contracting party is the guardian, and the agreement has to be drafted that way rather than having a parent counter-sign an influencer template.
Earnings set aside
Where a trust obligation applies, the percentage, the institution, and the reporting cadence are decided before the campaign runs — not reconstructed from invoices afterwards.
Working hours and permits
A child performing in commercial content may fall under the same employment rules as a child actor. Shoot schedules have to be built around that, and in some jurisdictions a work permit is required.
Disclosure a child’s audience can read
FTC disclosure has to be understood by the audience actually watching. On family content that audience includes children, which raises the bar above a hashtag at the end of a caption.
Likeness and usage, scoped and time-limited
Perpetual likeness rights over a person who is currently nine years old is a position no brand should want to defend. Usage windows and territories get defined narrowly and revisited on renewal.
A documentation pack built for review
Your legal team should receive consent, disclosure, trust arrangements, permits and usage terms as one reviewable file — not as attachments recovered from four different email threads.
For parents
Six questions to ask any manager.
Including me. If someone cannot answer these without checking, that is the answer.
- 01Who is the contracting party — my child, or me?
- 02What percentage of this is being set aside, where, and who administers it?
- 03How long can the brand use this content, and in which territories?
- 04What happens to the content if my child wants it taken down at eighteen?
- 05Who is responsible for the FTC disclosure being correct — me, the brand, or you?
- 06Does this shoot need a work permit in the state we are filming in?
Representing a family? Get in touch here instead.
Running a campaign with minors?
Send the concept, the territory and your legal contact. I’ll tell you what the review will need before you commit to a shoot date.
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