Tennessee bill regulating family influencers passes legislature

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Influencers who feature kids in their content will now be required by law to pay those children a portion of the money they make online.

SB1469 is headed to Governor Bill Lee’s desk after passing both the House and Senate earlier this month.

It puts new child labor law regulations in place aimed at protecting kids who are heavily featured in monetized online content.

Under the bill:

• Kids under the age of 14 cannot make money from posting their own content.
• Kids between the ages of 14-18 are entitled to 100% of the money made from content they post themselves.
• If a child appears in at least 30 percent of a creator’s monetized content within a 30-day period, they must be compensated for it. The bill requires the money be set aside in a trust accessible to the child when they turn 18.
• Content creators must keep records of their content and track things like how much money they’re making, how much of the content featured the child and how much money they’ve set aside in a trust.
• If a child between the ages of 14-18 asks to have a video with them in it taken down, the content creator must delete it.

The law would be enforced through civil action, and there are no criminal penalties tied to it.

“We’re not talking about casual videos or posting your kids or just having fun at Christmas,“ said bill sponsor Senator Page Walley, R-Bolivar. ”What we’re talking about is you’re monetizing this, you’re selling this, and you’re reaping benefits from it.”

Walley said the idea came after several other states have passed similar legislation.

“We want kids to be kids, but when it comes to creating large amounts of money, someone’s getting that money and those kids need to be protected and have the benefit of that later on,” he said. “Those children need to reap the advantage of those name, image, and likeness.”

Illinois, California, Minnesota and Utah have also passed similar laws.

Once the bill is signed by the governor, it will go into effect on July 1, 2026.