Online influencers don’t always do the right thing and can face consequences

You probably know the term “influencer” quite well already – you are probably even following someone.

In recent years, influencers have flooded all possible social networks.

Their videos show how they exercise, travel, cook, or have fun. Through the videos we get to know their friends, pets, and even children.

Videos with babies and little kids, who do various things in the videos, attract the public’s attention the most.

We can watch how mothers change and feed them. Slightly older kids sing, play, or answer different questions. Sometimes kids perform by themselves.

And here we encounter the first problem – when can we say that children become actors in a paid advertisement?

By law, the Slovenian Labor Inspectorate prohibits children under the age of 15 from working. Different countries have different child labor laws.

In Slovenia, the first fine was already issued for children working on a social network – it amounted to 1,500 euros.

This means that the influencer praises a product in their video, yet at the same time does not mention to the audience that they were paid to advertise it.

Legislation in the field of influencers is somewhat unclear, so developments are still arising.

From now on influencers’ activities will be more closely monitored by all authorities. The European Union is also writing new legislation.

Influencers will have to mark the paid content and indicate if they have used filters or modified the content in any other way.

French influencers may even end up in prison for not complying with the new legislation.  

Points to Consider

1. Which social networks do you follow?
2. Do you follow any influencers?
3. How often do you see content featuring children?

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The original version of this article was published on July 5^th.