The number of child vloggers and kidfluencers is increasing rapidly. According to Minister Van Gennip of Social Affairs, there is nothing wrong with a child keeping an Instagram account or posting videos on YouTube. “Often it’s a fun hobby and that’s fine, but often it turns into work that earns money and our current regulations are not geared towards that.”
Doesn’t fit anymore
Last month, experts at RTL News argued for clear rules. “Existing legislation against child labor does not fully suit the current situation of young influencers,” said lawyer Naomi van der Louw.
There are several examples of children who already have hundreds of thousands of followers at a very young age and who earn a lot of money online. A well-known kidfluencer, for example, is 6-year-old Quenisha. She has 284,000 followers on Instagram, where she shows off clothes. In addition, she has popular accounts on TikTok, YouTube and her own clothing line.
In addition, there are families who vlog with all children, such as the Bellinga family with 625,000 YouTube subscribers. The four children of the family also all have their own Instagram account. Another example is the Lakap family with 665,000 subscribers on Youtube.
Well complex
“There are extreme examples and that shows that we must have clear rules: what we think is okay and what we don’t,” says Van Gennip. “I want to change the laws and regulations so that it is clear when it is child labor. A child who earns the family’s income at the age of six is of course not okay.”
According to the minister, it is complex, because when is it still a hobby and when is it work. She is now having further research into what the rules for kidfluencers and child vloggers should look like and will come up with proposals early next year.
