From Playtime to Paychecks: How Parents of Child Influencers Continue to Evade Child Labor Laws
![handle is hein.journals/jhtl24 and id is 220 raw text is: FROM PLAYTIME TO PAYCHECKS: HOW PARENTS OF CHILD
INFLUENCERS CONTINUE TO EVADE CHILD LABOR LAWS
Katherine LePage*
L Introduction
Although it seems unfathomable that a nine-year-old child
could earn over twenty-nine million dollars within a single year, in
2020, this was a reality for Ryan Kaji (Kaji), who is better known
by his YouTube channel username, Ryan's ToysReview.l Kaji was
only three and a half years old when he filmed his first YouTube video
in 2015.2 By 2016, Kaji's parents began posting videos of Kaji playing
* J.D Candidate, Suffolk University Law School, 2024.
1 See Madeline Berg, How Nine-Year-Old Ryan Kaji, YouTube's $30 Million Man,
Just Keeps Getting Richer, FORBES (Dec. 18, 2020), archived at
https://penna.cc/4788-VABV (discussing how Kaji's income put him at the top of
the 2020 Forbes list of the world's Highest-Paid YouTube Stars.). Cf Matthew
Townsend, Influencer Nation: 86% of Young Americans Want to Become One,
BLOOMBERG (Nov. 5, 2019), archived at https://perma.cc/Y9EY-AT75 (finding that
86% of Americans want to become [an influencer].); Hannah Murphy, Ever
younger 'kidfluencers'face online dangers, FIN. TIMES (July 25, 2020), archived at
https://penna.cc/8T53-A7UF (revealing that a 2019 survey found that out of 3,000
eight to 12-year-olds in the US, UK and China, nearly 30 per cent said they aspired
to be a YouTuber when they grew up.). See also Madison Medeiros, The Biggest
'Kidfluencers' You Need to Know, SHEKNOWS (June 12, 2019), archived at
https://penna.cc/ET92-L8C4 (announcing that Forbes estimated that Ryan made
about $22 million between June 2017 and June 2018, making him the year's most
profitable YouTube Star ....); Belinda Luscombe, How Ryan Kaji Became the
Most Popular 10-Year-Old in the World, TIME (Nov. 12, 2021), archived at
https://perma.cc/48UA-VJAD (stating that part of the reason Kaji has been the
highest paid YouTube star for three years straight is because he operates nine
channels on YouTube).
2 See Luscombe, supra note 1 (declaring that Ryan was three and a half years old
when he asked his parents if he could be on YouTube). [T]he family changed its
Copyright © 2023 Journal of High Technology Law and Katherine LePage.
All Rights Reserved. ISSN 1536-7983.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jhtl24&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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From Playtime to Paychecks: How Parents of Child Influencers Continue to Evade Child Labor Laws
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