Abstract
This paper focuses on the concept of “kidfluencers,” and the issues pertaining to these children’s financial, educational, and developmental rights. By examining the regulatory framework that deals with child labor laws in India under the CALPRA and CALPRR rules This study highlights the loopholethat persistin covering these children engaged in media and digital content.A comparative legal analysis is undertaken with the child labor laws of the USA (Coogan Law) and equivalent protections in France concerning child privacy.
Keywords
Kidfluencers, CALPRA/CALPRR, Coogan Law, Child Rights, Media Regulation
INTRODUCTION
The alarming stories of Machelle Hobson and Ruby Franke from ‘Fantastic Adventure’[1] and ‘8 Passengers’[2]have raised concerns regarding the rights of children in digital spaces.These accounts highlight how turning childhood into online content for profit can lead to exploitation. Such cases point to the potential for exploitation in turning childhood into online content for profit. ‘Kidfluencing’ can be understood as production and monetization of digital content involving minors. Although the West has seen a darker side to ‘kidfluencing,’ such occurrences are appalling; this concept has infiltrated India.A related study in India has shown the way in which influencer culture buttresses pre-existing cultural and consumerist norms, including the commercialization of a child’s identity.[3]
Section 3 of the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986(hereinafter ‘CALPRA’),prohibits children from engaging in hazardous occupationsyet permits exception for family based work and artistic engagement in entertainment industry. The family-based exception is criticized for legitimizing child work under the guise family responsibility. For instance, research on African parental beliefs found child rights to be viewed as an alien import that dilute parental control and dilute traditional modes of obedience and respect.[4]This uneasy acceptance of children performing, justified by a sense of familial obligation or artistic expression, is almost like a “toddler-to-trainwreck” pipeline a commercial practice that exalts the child as performer and ignores systemic disregard for their other, perhaps more important, welfare as scholars have described it.[5]Naaz, who was once Bollywood’s highest-paid child star, spent her youth hungry, beaten, and suicidal her story a searing testament to the human casualties of a system that profits from child labor while discarding their lives.[6]
A study conducted by Child Rights and You (CRY) titled “Child Artists in India: An Exploratory Study in Mumbai”found out that children under the age of 15 were working for 12–13 hours a day and six days a week, in direct violation of Section 7 of CALPRA. While Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation)Rules, 1988(hereinafter, CALPRR) Rule 2C, mandates that at least 20 per cent of the earnings of a child be deposited in a fixed deposit in their name, the study found that these funds are frequently used entirely by parents, leaving the child without the financial security intended by law.[7]The absence of a monitoring mechanism has left these provisions largely symbolic. The exponential growth of OTT platforms and family content creators in India, on one hand, and the lack of legal provisions dealing with it on the other, exacerbates the vulnerability of child influencers.
In this paper, the researcher explores the legal developments in context with children in entertainment and digital content creation. The paper analyses the rise of child influencers as well as how changing media environments affect the promotion and fulfillment of children’s financial and developmental rights.
[1]Marina A. Masterson, When Play Becomes Work: Child Labor Laws in the Era of “Kidfluencers,” 169 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 577 (2021).
[2]Ruby Franke: Parenting Advice YouTuber given Maximum Sentence for Child Abuse, (Feb. 21, 2024), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68353302.
[3]Devina Sarwatay, Kidfluencers in India: Commodification, Consumption, and Perpetuation of Dominant Culture, 11 Social Media + Society 20563051251356169 (2025).
[4]Alhassan Abdullah et al., Social Norms and Family Child Labor: A Systematic Literature Review, 19 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 4082 (2022).
[5]Alyssa Rodriguez, Children in the Entertainment Industry: The Right to Childhood. An Analysis of Federal Laws Regarding Mental Health & Minors in the Entertainmnet Industry, 2 Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review (2024), https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/feslr/vol2/iss1/7.
[6]Abused by Mother, Bollywood’s Biggest Child Star Would Be Denied Food after Slaving All Day, Danced for Money on Stage; No One from Bollywood Attended Her Funeral, The Indian Express (Aug. 12, 2025), https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/baby-naaz-tragic-life-story-abused-by-mother-denied-forgotten-by-industry-10184235/.
[7]Child-Artists-in-India-An-Exploratory-Study.Pdf, https://www.cry.org/downloads/safety-and-protection/Child-Artists-in-India-An-Exploratory-Study.pdf (last visited Mar. 31, 2026).