Quit Clicking Kids: protecting child influencers through policy with Chris McCarty, founder of Quit Clicking Kids

Since #KOSA, protecting kids online has continued to be a very hot topic. However, we often overlook the influence industry that also impacts kids online, for instance with the emergence of thousands of YouTube family channels. Horror stories of behind the scenes abuse have come out in recent news stories, in addition to the serious lack of protection when it comes to their privacy and their financial exploitation. Kids cannot give informed consent to become part of the family influence industry that is, unlike kids in acting careers, barely, if at all, regulated: to date, only three US states have signed this type of protective legislation into law, and many more have bills in the works. To talk about this topic, I welcomed the amazing Chris McCarty.

At 17, Chris founded Quit Clicking Kids, an advocacy organization, to safeguard the rights of children who grow up on monetized family social media accounts after discovering that child social media stars lacked the same rights and protections as child actors. Since then, they have worked with legislators across the United States to introduce protective legislation. In addition to leading advocacy efforts at Quit Clicking Kids, Chris is a junior at the University of Washington majoring in Political Science. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, CNN, NBC News, Teen Vogue, and they recently made the Forbes List of 30 under 30 in the social media category.

For more information on Quit Clicking Kids:

https://quitclickingkids.com/

https://www.instagram.com/quit_clicking_kids/