Tennessee’s New Child Influencer Law, What Every Family Content Creator Must Do by July 1, 2026

Tennessee has passed a first-of-its-kind child labor law for the social media age. Senate Bill 1469 is headed to Governor Bill Lee’s desk after passing both the House and Senate. It puts new child labor law regulations in place aimed at protecting kids who are heavily featured in monetized online content. This is not a lawsuit or settlement. It is a law — and it directly affects every parent, guardian, and adult content creator in Tennessee who features children in videos that make money. This article covers every requirement, every deadline, and every penalty you need to know.

Quick Facts

Field	Detail
Bill Number	SB1469 / Senate Bill 1469
Sponsored By	Sen. Page Walley (R-Bolivar); House: Rep. Ron Travis (R-Dayton)
Senate Vote	29–2 (March 19, 2026)
House Vote	92–0 with 1 present (April 3, 2026)
Status	Passed — Awaiting Governor Bill Lee’s Signature
Effective Date	July 1, 2026 (if signed)
Who It Affects	Content creators in Tennessee who feature minors in monetized videos
Penalty for Violations	$2,000 civil penalty
Enforcement	Civil action only — no criminal penalties
States with Similar Laws	Illinois (2024), California, Minnesota, Utah (2025)

Current Status

• The House passed the Senate’s version of the bill with 92 votes on April 3, 2026. The Senate passed the bill 29–2 on March 19, 2026. It now heads to Governor Bill Lee’s desk.
• Once signed, the bill is expected to take effect July 1, 2026.
• The law will be enforced through civil action only. There are no criminal penalties tied to it.
• Governor Lee has not yet signed or vetoed the bill as of April 12, 2026.

Why Did Tennessee Pass This Law?

Sen. Page Walley told reporters: “We’re not talking about kids in coal mines and sweatshops, but we are talking about kids who are being asked to participate by adults in content creation and performance in this kind of new entertainment and information economy.”

Walley explained that most child labor protections were written at a time when kids were at risk of working in coal mines or in fields, and had not been updated to keep pace with the digitalized economy. The influencer industry now generates tens of billions of dollars annually worldwide, and children featured in family content channels frequently appear in videos that earn their parents significant income — with no legal obligation to compensate or protect the child.

Walley was direct about the problem the law is trying to solve: “We want kids to be kids, but when it comes to creating large amounts of money, someone’s getting that money and those kids need to be protected and have the benefit of that later on.”

The case of Ruby Franke — the family content creator whose YouTube channel had more than 2 million followers and 1 billion views before she was charged with multiple counts of aggravated child abuse in 2023 — has been cited as a high-profile example of the risks children face when their lives are turned into content without legal protections.

What Exactly Does the Law Require?

This is the most important section if you are a content creator in Tennessee. The law sets up different rules depending on the age of the child and who is posting the content.

Children Under Age 14 — Complete Ban on Monetized Appearances

Kids under the age of 14 cannot make money from posting their own content. More significantly, adults also cannot feature children under 14 in monetized content. Any child in Tennessee under 14 will not be allowed to appear in online videos that make money. If they do, the adult who violated the law can receive a $2,000 fine.

This applies regardless of whether the child is the account holder or simply appears in an adult’s content. If your monetized channel features your 10-year-old and it meets the thresholds described below, you are in violation.

Children Ages 14 to 17 — Their Own Content, Their Own Money

Kids between the ages of 14 and 18 are entitled to 100% of the money made from content they post themselves. A teenager who runs their own channel and earns money from it keeps every dollar. No parent or guardian can take a cut of what a 14-to-17-year-old earns from their own original content.

Children Ages 14 to 17 — Appearing in an Adult’s Content

This is where the trust fund requirement kicks in. When a child between 14 and 17 appears heavily in a parent’s or adult’s monetized content, that adult must set aside a portion of earnings for the child. The specifics of how “heavily featured” is defined are explained in the next section.

How Do You Know If the Law Applies to Your Channel?

Not every family video triggers the law. Tennessee set specific thresholds to define when a child is officially considered to be “engaged in content creation.”

The bill states that a minor is officially engaged in content creation if at least 30% of a content creator’s videos made within a 30-day period include the name, likeness, or photograph of a minor, and the number of views per video met the platform’s criteria for generating money, or the content creator made money equal to or greater than 10 cents per view from the video, and the creator made more than $15,000 in the prior 12-month period.

In plain terms, all three of the following must be true before the law’s trust fund requirement is triggered:

• The child appears in at least 30% of your monetized videos within any 30-day window
• Those videos earn at least 10 cents per view, or meet the platform’s own monetization threshold
• You earned more than $15,000 total from your video content in the past 12 months

Senator Walley was clear that casual family content is not the target: “We’re not talking about casual videos or posting your kids or just having fun at Christmas. What we’re talking about is you’re monetizing this, you’re selling this, and you’re reaping benefits from it.”

Related article: California Plastic Bag Ban 2026, What It Bans, What It Allows, and What It Costs You Rules Every Shopper Must Know

The Trust Fund Requirement — How Much Must Be Set Aside?

Once the thresholds above are met, the adult content creator must open a trust account for the minor and deposit a share of earnings into it.

If only one minor meets the criteria, the percentage of total money made on a video segment including their name, image, or likeness must be equal to or greater than half of the content percentage that includes them. If two or more minors meet the criteria, the percentage for all of them should be equally divided between them, regardless of how much content is provided by each child individually.

Exactly how much money is set aside is tied to how many minutes of content the child is part of, according to the bill’s sponsor. This is a proportional calculation — the more screen time a child has, the larger the share of earnings that must go into the trust.

What Are the Rules for the Trust Account?

The law does not let creators park money in just any account. A central provision requires primary content creators — often parents or guardians — to establish trust accounts for minors featured in such content. These accounts must be held by qualified financial institutions and remain accessible only to the child upon reaching the age of 18.

Specifically, the trust must meet various criteria: it can only be accessible to the minor who created or appeared in the content, the money must be accessible to the minor when they turn 18, and it must be held by a state or national bank, savings and loan association, credit union, or trust company.

This structure is similar to what the entertainment industry calls a “Coogan Account.” For child actors in California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and New Mexico, 15% of a minor’s gross wages are required to be withheld by the employer and deposited into a trust. These blocked trust accounts are known as Coogan Accounts, named for 1920s child actor Jackie Coogan. Tennessee’s law extends that same protective principle to the social media world.

Record-Keeping Requirements — What Creators Must Document

The law places significant record-keeping obligations on adult content creators. These are not optional.

Content creators must maintain documentation until the minor turns 21, including proof of age, the duration and frequency of the child’s appearances, total revenue generated from such content, and the amount deposited into the trust account. Creators are further required to inform minors about the existence of these records.

The creator must keep a record of compensation generated, as well as the number of minutes a minor was featured in content creation, according to bill language.

These records must be kept until the child turns 21 — not 18. Even if a child leaves the channel at age 10, the creator must preserve those records for over a decade.

The Right to Delete — Children Can Erase Their Online Past

One of the most significant protections in the law gives children the power to remove themselves from content once they are old enough to decide.

If a minor over the age of 14 and under 18 at the time of recording asks to have a video with them taken down, the content creator must delete it. This is not a request the creator can weigh or negotiate. It is a legal obligation to comply.

The legislation also allows those children to request that content featuring them be deleted once they reach adulthood. This means that even after turning 18, an adult can go back and ask for videos made during their childhood to be permanently removed from the internet.

This right exists independently of any other platform policies. Even if a platform like YouTube or TikTok would not remove the video on its own, the creator in Tennessee becomes legally obligated to take it down upon request.

Sexual Content Featuring Minors — Explicit Criminal-Adjacent Ban

The law goes beyond financial protections and directly addresses predatory content. The bill explicitly bans anyone from knowingly producing a video depicting a minor with the “intent to sexually gratify or elicit a sexual response in the viewer” and financially benefiting from it.

This provision makes it clear that the law is not only about trust fund compliance — it is also about protecting children from exploitation in the most direct sense.

Penalties for Violations

Adults who violate the law can receive a $2,000 fine. This applies to violations such as featuring a child under 14 in monetized content, failing to establish a trust account when required, or failing to comply with a takedown request.

The law will be enforced through civil action only. There are no criminal penalties tied to it. That means violations are pursued through the courts — not through arrests or criminal prosecution. A child or their legal representative would need to bring a civil claim to enforce their rights under the law.

How Does Tennessee’s Law Compare to Other States?

Tennessee is not the first state to act on this issue, but it joins a growing national movement.

Illinois was the first state to expand its child labor laws to include child influencers and vloggers in 2024, followed by California and Minnesota. Utah passed similar legislation in 2025. Tennessee’s law follows the same basic framework — trust accounts, record-keeping, and deletion rights — and adds its own specific thresholds for when the protections are triggered.

The core difference between states lies in the specific income and appearance thresholds. Tennessee’s 30% appearance threshold and $15,000 annual income requirement sets a clear bar that casual family channels will not cross, while targeting accounts where children’s participation is a central, revenue-generating part of the creator’s business model.

Who Does This Law NOT Cover?

The law is deliberately targeted. It does not apply to:

• Channels earning under $15,000 per year in video content revenue
• Videos where a child appears in fewer than 30% of a creator’s videos within a 30-day period
• Non-monetized content — videos that do not earn money are not covered
• Children under 14 making their own non-monetized content for fun
• Casual holiday or birthday videos posted without monetization

Senator Walley was explicit: “We’re not talking about casual videos or posting your kids or just having fun at Christmas.” The thresholds exist precisely to draw the line between everyday family sharing and commercial exploitation of a child’s image.

Important Dates

Milestone	Date
Bill Filed in Senate	October 30, 2025
Senate Passed SB1469	March 19, 2026 (29–2 vote)
House Passed SB1469	April 3, 2026 (92–0 vote)
Sent to Governor Bill Lee’s Desk	April 10, 2026
Governor’s Decision	TBD
Law Takes Effect (if signed)	July 1, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tennessee’s child influencer law?

 Tennessee’s SB1469 is a child labor law that bans children under 14 from appearing in monetized online content, requires trust accounts for children aged 14–17 who appear heavily in adult creators’ monetized videos, gives minors the right to demand content be deleted, and requires detailed record-keeping by creators.

Does this law apply to me if my child appears occasionally in my videos? 

Not automatically. The law only applies if your child appears in at least 30% of your monetized videos within a 30-day period, you earn at least 10 cents per view or meet the platform’s monetization threshold, and you earned more than $15,000 from video content in the past 12 months. Occasional appearances in family content do not trigger the law.

What happens to the trust fund money if my child never claims it? 

The money remains in the trust account held by a bank, savings and loan association, credit union, or trust company until the child turns 18 and chooses to access it. The law requires the funds to remain accessible to the child — not the parent — upon reaching adulthood.

Can my child ask me to delete videos they appeared in?

 Yes. If your child is between 14 and 17 and asks you to remove a video featuring them, the law requires you to delete it. Once they turn 18, they retain the right to request permanent deletion of content made during their childhood.

Are there criminal penalties for violating this law? 

No. The law is enforced through civil action only. Violations carry a $2,000 civil penalty. There are no criminal charges or arrests tied to violations of SB1469.

Does this law apply to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms? 

Yes. The law applies to any online platform where monetized video content is shared and where the income and appearance thresholds are met. It is platform-neutral — it covers any service where creators earn money from video views.

What states have similar laws?

 Illinois passed the first version of this law in 2024. California, Minnesota, and Utah followed. Tennessee’s SB1469 joins this growing group of states applying child labor protections to the creator economy.

What records do I need to keep as a creator who features minors? 

You must keep records until the minor turns 21 — including proof of the child’s age, how often and how long they appeared in your content, total revenue earned from that content, and how much you deposited into their trust account. You must also tell the minor that these records exist.

Last Updated: April 12, 2026

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Legal claims and outcomes depend on specific facts and applicable law. For advice regarding a particular situation, consult a qualified attorney.