Background: Over the last two years, state legislators have been taking action, debating and passing laws to protect young content creators. In the last two weeks, two state legislatures (Arizona and Colorado) passed these types of bills as states across the US debated the topic. This policy brief explores the 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When, Why?) of trends in creator workforce-focused legislation across states.

Public Policy Problem: The content creator workforce has grown and become more prominent in the US. According to Edison Research, as of May 2025, 30 percent of youth aged 13 -24 in the US are currently involved in the creation or production of original content they share online.

​Child workers have long-standing protections at the federal level, but those in entertainment are exempt from them due to the industry's special circumstances. This leaves children's entertainment protections to the states to determine. Additionally, states are debating whether current-day online content creators are classified as “children entertainers” or whether this new workforce should be defined differently. The rise of content creators who have “family vlogs” has increased the attention states have paid to this topic.

Proposed Policy Solutions:

California has a history of state legislation focused on protecting child artists because of the large entertainment industry in the state. For example, the state has a long-standing law that requires compensation from child actors or performers to be held in a trust. Over the years, at least four other states have passed similar laws. Recently, states have enacted new laws or expanded these laws to include considerations for young online content creators. Alongside the popularity of creating trusts for these creators, states have debated record-keeping requirements, platform risk mitigation, and content removal.

Questions states are trying to answer include:

Who? Arizona and Colorado are the two latest states to pass bills focused on protecting youth content creators online, and both are awaiting the Governor’s signature. Although both have similar elements, differences emerge, such  as the type of content captured and when minors can monetize their content. This example shows the complexity of proposals and conversations happening nationwide. For example, both states target online content monetization, but differ on which types of content are captured. Colorado’s bill focuses on a broader approach to regulating audio, image, and video content, whereas Arizona’s law applies only to video content.

What? Both pieces of legislation, Arizona’s HB 2192 and Colorado’s HB 1058, expand child labor laws by focusing on minors who are subjects of an adult’s content creation and content creation made by minors.

Both states specify that, in order for minors who are featured in adult content creation to be compensated, three conditions must be met:

In both states, the adult content creator must also maintain records related to the topic and make them available for youth creators.

Both bills clarify that youth content creators may create and publish their own content and receive compensation. In Colorado, creators must be 14, and in Arizona, 13.

Both states outline that if a minor is featured in an adult content creator's content, the compensation they are owed must be deposited into a trust account that the minor can access once they turn 18. Both bills outline a procedure that online hosting platforms and adult content creators must follow to remove content that includes a minor.

Both states prohibit the monetization of explicit material depicting a minor. For example, Arizona’s bill requires an online hosting platform to develop and implement a risk-based strategy and specifies that existing trust and safety systems and policies may satisfy the requirement.

When? In 2024, Illinois (SB 3646) became the first state to pass a law specifically addressing compensation for minors involved in vlogging. Minnesota quickly followed by passing (HB 3488), which has similar elements (trust accounts, record-keeping, and content removal)  to the Arizona and Colorado laws enacted this year. That same year, California (AB 1880) expanded trust accounts for child performers to include content creators. This year, a bill (SB 1247) is moving through California that would allow minors featured in content creators' content to request that the content be removed.

Last year, four states: Arkansas (HB 1975), New Jersey (AB 4302), Montana (HB 392), and Utah (HB 322) enacted similar laws to the laws passed this year. Ohio (HB 547) and Oklahoma (HB 1016) introduced similar bills that did not pass. This year, Alabama (HB 170) introduced a similar law. Last year, Hawaii took a different approach regarding revenue created by the Hawaii-based content creation economy, by proposing to tax major social media platforms for targeted advertisements based on user data, interactions, or Hawaii-based content or audiences.

Why?  It is evident that states are focused on protecting the emerging industry of young content creators, especially given the lack of federal protections for these young workers. Although Arizona’s Legislature passed a new law similar to those emerging across the states, other bills with the same focus were introduced in the state this year, demonstrating the complexity of negotiations at the state level.

Two other bills (HB 2390 & HB 2391) were introduced on this topic, focused on similar themes, but included differences in definitions and oversight mechanisms. Both pieces of legislation had over 10 sponsors, demonstrating how popular this topic was among Arizona legislators this session. Another bill in the Arizona Legislature that lost momentum aimed to create a technology content protection for minors grant fund. The fund would use the money recovered through the Attorney General's office efforts to enforce minor online safety laws. If the bill passed, the Attorney General’s office would be required to distribute the funding to non-profits for online safety outreach programs and research on the effects of social media on the mental and physical health of minors.

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Disclosure: This is a human-written and driven publication. As a small business owner and mighty team of one, I use AI tools to optimize my small business operations as a part of my admin tech stack. Regarding this publication, AI is mainly used to help with catchy titles, as a thesaurus when writing and a partner when creating cartoons. (Thanks, Canva, and not an ad!) As a secret doodler, I add my human touch using my digital pad and pen. I also use Grammarly, with AI built in, to help with copy editing/grammar (again, mighty team of one!) Thanks for reading. 😊