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Kids influencer Shari Franke is fighting the “family vlogging” trend.

Kids influencer Shari Franke is fighting the “family vlogging” trend.

A Utah Senate committee is looking into the effects of “child influence” and the ethics of putting a child in front of a camera for views, fame and income.

Shari’s words come as states across America are looking at their child influencer laws in a new light. Three states, including Illinois, Minnesota and California, have already passed laws providing financial and privacy protections to children’s online influencers.

Given that Utah has become a hot spot for family vlog content in recent years, Utah will be next in line to examine its laws regarding children’s sphere of influence.

Shari notes that even when the children in question are paid, there is no formal structure that determines how much.

She said: “There is no law to ensure that child influencers get paid from their work and how can we determine how much a child should earn from appearing in family content? At what cost is it worth giving up your childhood?

Her testimony highlighted the detrimental effects of family vlogging on young children who have no choice when thrown into influence spaces.

“One of our most popular videos was when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed and the whole world saw a teenager crying when I just wanted to mourn him in private,” she said.

“As children, we don’t understand the consequences of filming our lives and putting them out there for everyone to see. We cannot give our parents consent to publish our lives. In any other context, it is clear that children cannot give consent, but for some, this is the reason why people think that family vlogs are something different. “In addition, pedophiles scour the Internet specifically in search of influential children. I promise you that parents know about these predators and still choose to publish their children,” she continued.