UK Child Influencer Project Launch - A risk assessment approach to child influencer labour

How to join

This is a hybrid event, please register to either attend in person or online;

• For in-person attendance, book your place through eventbrite.
• To attend online, register on zoom.

About the Child Influencer Project – Ireland and UK

This project considers the impact of digital child labour on child performers (under 13) on social media sites such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Effectively, the children do not appear in their own right (as they are underage), but the parent or guardian acts as a conduit, managing the account and curating the content. 

Recent regulatory discourses on social media's impact on children’s well-being have increased protections for children online but have not fully considered the impact of a digital workload on child influencers’ economic, social, psychological, and physical well-being. In viewing these social media platforms as potential ‘workspaces’ for children, my research considers the role of risk assessment for these harms, to raise awareness and encourage best practices for parents operating in this new workspace. 

A full risk assessment for the potential range of harms might include consideration of; 

• financial harms (such as the lack of protection for any earnings);
• future harms (such as heightened exposure to identity fraud); 
• family relations (such as the impact on siblings, differing opinions on the practice between parents and grandparents, or estranged parents); 
• harms that impact on the reputation, dignity, and psychological well-being of the child; 
• impacts on the child’s educational attendance and attainment; 
  
• basic health & safety violations, as working hours and equipment, are not monitored, and there is no insurance cover in case of any accidents during the performance;
• invasions of privacy that could incur hostile comments from peers and bullying behaviours; 
• the potential for harm to the person caused by over-zealous fans or coercive behaviours.