softscorpio, also known as "Cam" online, explains in their video why parents using their children in monetized content is exploitative, hurtful, and leads to dangerous outcomes for the rest of their lives. They state, "Children are not content. The internet should not know more about your child then they do you... you give them a little information that they got from your [parents] posts? They have access to your kids life." (Cam, 2022)

The rising popularity of "kidfluencers" on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram has created problematic gray areas between candid home videos and staged, monetized content. This has led to a blurring "between simply recording a child having fun, child labor, and child abuse” (Burke, 2022). 

Currently, children in the traditional entertainment industry are protected by Coogan Laws that regulate how many hours they can work each week, what type of work they can do, and how their profits are managed. However, entertainment law has never been updated to extend these same protections to children making social media content.

State child labor laws should be amended to include work performed on social media platforms. At the federal level, we should pass "right to be forgotten" laws. Finally, parents and guardians must make intentional choices about how and when to share content featuring children.