Content or Childhood? The Legal Gray Area of Child Influencers and Family Vlogging

By Sigal Waisman '29

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In the age of social media and content creators, it has become normal to see intimate aspects of people's lives online, often forming parasocial relationships between influencers and their audiences. While adults can consent to sharing their lives publicly, children cannot. Yet millions of children are featured in family vlogs and social media content before they are old enough to understand the long-term consequences of having their lives permanently documented online.

Children are increasingly featured in family vlogs and social media content, often being taken advantage of by their parents or guardians. States should enact more comprehensive child influencer laws because existing legal protections fail to adequately safeguard minors from the privacy, financial, and emotional harms associated with having their lives publicly shared and monetized online.

Parental Rights and Legal Liability

Parental rights law protects many rights and decisions about raising children, including education, religious activities, medical care, and social involvement. These rights are carried through until the child reaches the age of majority, at which a person is considered an adult in the eyes of the law, which in most of the United States is 18 years old. Because minors generally cannot provide legally binding consent on their own, parents are legally authorized to make many important decisions on their behalf. (1) 

Most Americans agree with the necessity behind child labor restriction laws and that parents should be able to limit their children from overworking. But what if the parents are the ones pushing their kids to work for their own financial benefit? The Uniform Gifts to Minors Act helps mitigate this potential issue by working as an untouchable financial account for a child to access only when they come of age. This is usually established by a guardian and can include gifts from parents, grandparents, or even children’s potential work earnings such as mowing a neighbor's lawn or babysitting money. (2) 

These types of protections, while helpful, were not designed to address the modern-day challenges of social media and family vlogging, a rapidly growing form of work that often relies on children's participation.

Children’s Privacy and Digital Footprints

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law defines the Right of Privacy as: the right of a person to be free from intrusion into or publicity concerning matters of a personal nature, also called the right to privacy. The dictionary also notes that while not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution, a penumbral right of privacy has been held to be encompassed in the Bill of Rights, providing protection. (3)

As previously discussed, individuals cannot legally provide consent until they reach the age of majority, which is typically eighteen, regardless of whether they personally approve of or agree to the activity in question. For example, in cases involving medical consent, a minor cannot independently make a medical decision even if they are considered mature. A comprehensive analysis of both statutory and common law demonstrates that in such settings, parental consent continues to be required by most jurisdictions, even when the minor can be considered cognitively "mature." (4)

The law recognizes that children may not fully comprehend the risks and long-term consequences associated with important decisions, which is why their ability to provide legally meaningful consent is limited. Yet, despite these protections, children are routinely exposed to millions of viewers online through family vlogs and social media content, often without any meaningful opportunity to understand or consent to the creation of a permanent digital footprint.

Each time a person posts or leaves a comment online, a digital footprint is created, along with potential implications for future educational, professional, and personal opportunities. (5) This is why many parents use third-party apps or platforms to set limits on their children's electronics and monitor their internet use. Yet, family vlogging presents a troubling contradiction: the very individuals responsible for protecting children's digital privacy are often the ones exposing it. By sharing intimate details of their children's lives with potentially millions of viewers, parents create permanent digital records that children neither choose nor fully understand, leaving them with consequences they may carry long into adulthood.

When Existing Laws Fail to Protect: Real-Life Dangerous Examples 

The case Utah v. Franke/Hildebrant demonstrates what can happen when children's lives become “content.” Ruby Franke's (mother) family vlog, 8 Passengers, attracted millions of viewers and relied heavily on the participation of her six children. As the channel grew in 2015, concerns emerged about the children's privacy and exploitation, as intimate moments of their lives were routinely shared online. Even though people had conspired for years about the children’s safety, it wasn't until 2023 that the situation officially escalated. Franke's 12-year-old son, Russell, escaped the home and sought help from a neighbor after being chained up for days, ultimately leading to Franke's conviction on multiple counts of child abuse in 2024. (6) 

The case highlights a troubling reality: by the time abuse is discovered, the physical, emotional, and privacy harms suffered by child influencers may already be irreversible, demonstrating the need for stronger legal protections before harm occurs.

The Wren Eleanor controversy is a prime example of why action must be taken before it is too late. Wren Eleanor is a young child whose TikTok account, managed by her mother Jacquelyn, has amassed millions of followers. What began as an innocent family account has become increasingly concerning due to the abnormal level of engagement from viewers. For example, a video of Wren wearing an orange crop top has been saved more than 45,000 times, while a video of her eating a hot dog has been saved nearly 375,000 times. Even more troubling, the search suggestions associated with many of her videos include phrases such as “Wren Eleanor hot dog” and “Wren Eleanor pickle,” raising serious concerns about the audience consuming this content. (7)

Unlike the Ruby Franke case, where the abuse was not discovered until after significant harm had already occurred, the warning signs in Wren's case were visible long before action was taken. Following widespread public concern, much of the content featuring Wren was eventually removed from social media. However, the controversy remains relevant because the videos had already accumulated millions of views and hundreds of thousands of saves before being taken down. Although no abuse has been alleged, the situation demonstrates how children can be exposed to potential exploitation online long before they are old enough to understand or consent to the consequences. More importantly, the removal of the content does not erase its existence. Once images and videos are posted online, they can be downloaded, shared, and redistributed indefinitely, creating a permanent digital footprint that may follow a child long after the original content has been deleted.

Emerging Legal Protections

Historically, legal reform has often occurred only after significant harm has already taken place. Rather than focusing on prevention, the legal system in the United States frequently waits until a tragedy exposes a gap in the law before implementing protections designed to prevent similar harm in the future.

Following Utah v. Franke, Kevin Franke testified before the House Business, Labor and Commerce Committee in support of House Bill 322 (HB322), stating, "Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day." (8) Like previous child performer protections, HB322 contains provisions that protect the earnings of children featured in monetized content. However, what distinguishes HB322 is its "take down" right, which allows former child influencers to regain control over their digital footprint by requesting the removal of content created during their childhood. HB322 would make it so children who are featured in content can have specific pieces of content taken down after they turn 18. This can be for content that they feel is embarrassing or harmful to their reputation. (9) Other states have followed suit by enacting similar legislation, including Illinois, Minnesota, and California. 

While HB322 and these laws are a step in the right direction, they largely address the consequences of online exploitation after the fact. There remains an opportunity for the United States to shift its focus from correcting harm when it is too late to prevent that harm from occurring in the first place.

France, for one, has taken steps to try to mitigate this issue. The French Children's Image Rights Law adopted in July of 2023 has implemented many aspects to prevent “sharenting.” One interesting aspect of this law is that parents must act jointly before publishing images of their children, and thus, a parent would have legal grounds to take another parent to court if they do not consent to the sharing of a particular image. (10) Had a similar law existed in the United States, it could have made a significant difference in the Franke case, where Kevin Franke disagreed with much of the content Ruby Franke posted online but had little legal recourse to stop it. Moreover, France also established forced delegation of parental authority — a change in custody of the minor — if the content is deemed to cause “serious harm to the child’s dignity or moral integrity.” (11) This preventative approach is particularly relevant in situations such as the Wren Eleanor controversy, where concerns about a child's privacy and well-being were raised for years before any action was taken.

A Path Forward

The internet and virtual world are only continuing to grow. If action is not taken, more children will grow up with permanent digital footprints created before they are old enough to understand or consent to the consequences. As the world of social media continues to evolve, legal protections in the United States must evolve with it to ensure that children are treated as individuals with rights rather than content for public consumption and profit. Protecting child influencers is not just about addressing harm after it occurs, but preventing it in the first place.

One potential next step would be adopting preventative measures similar to those found in the French Children's Image Rights Law. For example, future legislation could require both parents to consent before certain content featuring a child is posted online and allow courts to intervene when a child's online presence is causing harm. Combined with protections such as HB322's takedown right, these measures could help give children greater control over their digital footprint before irreversible harm occurs.

Until stronger protections are put in place, children will continue to bear the consequences of having their childhoods treated as content.

Endnotes

1. Ty McDuffey, “Parental Rights and Legal Liability,” FindLaw, last reviewed June 2, 2025, https://www.findlaw.com/family/parental-rights-and-liability.htm.

2. Bret Fulton, “Unsubscribe from Family Vlogging,” Daily Nebraskan, April 16, 2025, https://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/opinion-unsubscribe-from-family-vlogging/article_60b119ca-23cb-41f2-acb7-fedfef8cb65b.html.

3. FindLaw, “Right of Privacy,” FindLaw Dictionary of Legal Terms, https://dictionary.findlaw.com/definition/right-of-privacy.html.

4. Doriane Lambelet Coleman and Philip Rosoff, “The Legal Authority of Mature Minors to Consent to General Medical Treatment,” Pediatrics 131, no. 4 (2013): 786–793, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23530175/.

5. Elyse Bloom, “Digital Footprints and the Dangers of Just Being a Kid,” The Daily Free Press, April 7, 2025, https://dailyfreepress.com/04/07/17/212066/digital-footprints-and-the-dangers-of-just-being-a-kid-terms-and-conditions/.

6. Amber Raiken and Brittany Miller, “Ruby Franke: Everything to Know About the Family Vlogger’s Abuse Case Ahead of New Netflix Documentary,” AOL, December 30, 2025, https://www.aol.com/news/ruby-franke-everything-know-family-124926981.html?utm

7. Penelope Min, “Protect Wren: What Is the Wren Eleanor Movement on TikTok?” July 26, 2022, https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn%3acontentItem%3a6618-C6W1-JBNF-W0VD-00000-00&context=1519360&identityprofileid=8XHCHK54812.

8. Sean P. Means, “Kevin Franke Regrets Letting His Kids Go Online, Supports Bill to Protect Child Influencers’ Earnings,” The Salt Lake Tribune, February 19, 2025, https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2025/02/19/kevin-franke-supports-bill-protect/

9. Caitlin Keith, “Utah Becomes the Fourth State to Pass Legislation Protecting Kids Featured in Social Media Content,” Deseret News, March 7, 2025, https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/03/07/child-influencer-protections/.

10. Alaina Babb, “Children Must Be Protected in the Age of Social Media,” FSView & Florida Flambeau, September 21, 2025,https://www.fsunews.com/story/opinion/2025/09/21/children-must-be-protected-in-the-age-of-social-media/86116775007/.

11. Ibid.