By Elizabeth Wagmeister | CNN
Pop star Demi Lovato met with Gavin Newsom in Los Angeles because the California governor signed two bills Thursday geared toward providing financial security for child stars within the digital age.
The two recent laws are intended to assist protect young social media influencers and be sure that children and young people appearing on online platforms are shielded from financial abuse.
“Much has changed since the early days of Hollywood, but here in California, our focus on protecting children from exploitation remains the same,” said Governor Newsom said in an announcement. “In old Hollywood, child actors were exploited. In 2024 it will now be child influencers. Today, this modern-day exploitation ends with two new laws protecting young influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms.”
Lovato has advocated for laws, as recently highlighted in her Hulu documentary “Child Star,” which served as her directorial debut and centered on the hazards of young celebrity.
Earlier this month, Lovato sat down with CNN for an interview where she expressed her concern to assist young artists working today.
“It's kind of the Wild West in the digital age,” Lovato told CNN, referring to how today's ever-changing media landscape is different from when she was a baby star.
Lovato began her profession in show business within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, when children's television was at its peak. She was initially solid on Barney and Friends after which landed groundbreaking roles on the Disney Channel that catapulted her to teen idol status.
Since then, the entertainment industry has modified tremendously with the rise in content created and monetized by digital influencers, and Lovato believes there’s a loophole in these laws to guard minors operating on recent platforms with recent business models .
In her documentary, Lovato met with a youth activist and advocacy group leader Fast-clicking children Chris McCarty, who worked with Lovato to push the bills now signed into law by Newsom.
Speaking to CNN earlier this month, Lovato said she hopes the bills will pass within the state of California and shared that her goal is to someday bring the problems to Capitol Hill.
A bill signed by Newsom (SB 764) creates financial and legal protections for minors featured in monetized online content by requiring their parents or guardians to deposit a percentage of their earnings into escrow accounts. The other bill (FROM 1880) expands California's decades-old Coogan law Inclusion of minors employed as content creators on online platforms.
SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union, praised recent laws passed Thursday for the industry's young stars.
“We are grateful that the protections now in place for child performers – protections we secured long ago – are being extended to content creators and influencers,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA. “Regardless of the medium or platform, all child actors must be strongly protected.”
The CNN Wire
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