Behind The Screens: Bridging India’s Child Labour Laws To Safeguard Kidfluencers From Exploitation In Creator Economy
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
Pramyuktha R, BBA LLB, School of Law, Christ (deemed to be University), Lavasa Campus, Pune, Maharashtra
I. Introduction:
The rapid increase of child influencers, commonly referred to as “Kidfluencers” has pretty much changed childhood into a commercial enterprise. There has been rise of children below 18 years of age who are making money through platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and various other social media platforms through brand promotion, dance reels, toy unboxing videos, family vlogs that attract millions of views and thus generate substantial income. What we witness as a playful creativity is more highly organised form of labour where children rehearse, perform and keep up with the posting schedule which can pressurize the children and also their personal moments become digital property which is being exchanged for sponsorships and revenues.
However, India still treats this as an unregulated family entertainment rather than regulating it. Currently, the existing laws such as the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and also NCPCR guidelines which is non-binding were never designed for algorithm-driven, home-based digital work. Parents retain full control over earnings, platforms operate under safe-harbour immunity, and no statutory limits exist on filming hours, data exploitation, or the child’s future right to erase content. This regulatory void exposes young creators to overwork, psychological pressure, loss of privacy, cyberbullying, and financial exploitation and these risks that directly contradict India’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The first country to responded decisively was France with Law No. 2020-1266 of 19 October 2020, with a legislation that recognises online influencing as regulated child labour, caps working hours, requires government authorization, and places a portion of earnings in protected accounts until the child reaches adulthood. Drawing practical lessons from France’s labour- law approach, earnings-protection mechanism, and image-rights safeguards, this paper explains that India can build a rights-respecting framework that protects its youngest digital earners while preserving space for genuine creativity. Digital Personal Data Protection Act, No 22 of 2023 (India)
