Stories of child exploitation steer influencers bill at MN Capitol in new direction [Video]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – Minnesota lawmakers set out to protect the bank accounts of child influencers this year and stumbled into a worse type of exploitation.

A bill initially designed to make sure kids get paid for contributing to social media content took a sharp turn this week to keep kids out of profitable content altogether if they’re under the age of 14.

Using kids to sell products on social media has become a $1 billion industry. But laws protecting those kids are mostly stuck in the last century, before Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and even MySpace existed.

So across the country, lawmakers are scrambling to close the gaps and protect children from financial exploitation.

Almost as soon as Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, introduced his bill to make sure kids get paid when adults use them to create profitable content, he read about something worse and shared it widely.

“There’s a lot of really disgusting, …