You know when you meet someone special. I had the privilege of doing just that when I had the chance to talk to Chris McCarty, the student founder and executive director of Quit Clicking Kids. Based in Seattle, Chris has taken on the legal battle to get the government to protect kids whose parents have monetized their family videos, overshared on social media, overexposed and overpromoted their kids online as they grow up. Chris started Quit Clicking Kids: An advocacy group to combat the monetization of children on social media and with great success.

#quitclickingkids #sharentingadvocacy #sharenting #chrismccarty — Quit Clicking Kids, Chris McCarty

The internet and social media have shaped what human relationships look like today. When technology only included a landline, friends would call each other to check in with them to see how they were doing. Social media has turned this relationship around, so that you check up on social media to see how your friend is doing in order to keep up with them. Like a self-serve buffet of FOMO experiences and once you’ve consumed the social media, you should have been able to answer your own questions. Very isolating if you ask me. As social media became the norm for communication and cell phones replaced landlines, something else happened, which was the potential to make money off these relationships. Hollywood was no longer competing with reality tv, but influencers too. Many of these influencers though are kids.

The terms and agreements on social media platforms, gaming platforms and income producing platforms all have different rules and restrictions, very little is regulated. Furthermore the distinction between a child actor or a Youtube gamer is not very clear, and there are no laws differentiating a 6 month old versus a 13 year old online. Thanks to Chris’ support network and continuous work with legislators, certain states have signed into law protections that really will make a difference.

A first step is a child being paid for their work. A parallel to a child influencer is for example, a child actor in the movie Annie, or Britney Spears on the music stage, many of the children online are not the ones getting paid. Sometimes their working conditions take priority over their education, schooling and time just allowed to grow up and be a kid. Even as recently as in September 2024, Demi Lovato made the headlines with Governor Newsom and Senator Padilla of California that signed bill SB764. The publicity was aided by Hulu, who also recently released a documentary called Child Star, hosted by Demi Lovato to explain how this phenomenon has impacted many families, and kids today.

Demi Lovato and Governor Newsom, California

What the advocacy group has helped shape is that the income produced by families with children online need to set up 15% of the income into an escrow account until the age of 18. They would also like to see these accounts behave as a business entity, instead of a personal income stream, as making thousands of dollars a month is not the same as making 200$ selling a sofa and getting paid on Venmo. Even the IRS has flagged Venmo accounts requesting taxes to be filed, but in an unregulated social media world the rules are not as clear.

Outside of finances, is the right to privacy. States like Illinois and Minnesota have, thanks to Chris’s efforts, signed legislation to provide the right to minors to request a social media company to delete the content inside the account from a specific date. This is taking control of a digital footprint that was created before the child even knew it existed, and as we talk about family legacy planning and protection, the same applies here. The future use of social media data puts at risk the legacy, reputation, history, story, character, personality and looks of that individual. Because these child influencers have matured online, their location, home life, school life, family tree, all the homes of family members are quickly searchable online. This leads to incredible security risks, safety risks and criminal bullying or stalking opportunities that a child never knew existed until it becomes too late. The phenomenon of “Sharenting” is exploitative, and really should be addressed as in; what intent does my sharing of this information that is not about myself do? Who will it affect, and when? Will this affect my kids’ college applications? Will it affect their health insurance rates when they turn 18?

Thanks to the grassroots efforts by organizations such as Quit Clicking Kids, awareness and understanding comes first. The trickle down effect comes into estate planning when adults are in the position to plan their estates… how does this affect their kids’ accounts and income streams? What happens to these accounts if a family member dies and they are a prime actor on scene? What entitlement does the audience have, or think they have when private family matters are at stake? What responsibilities do social media companies have when they own the puppet strings to online immortality? These questions need to be answered faster than they are being asked, but it takes small victories to build big ones and we can start by thanking folks like Chris McCarty.

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