“Right to Delete” Legislation for Social Media Child Performers Legislation passes Key Senate Committees
SACRAMENTO – This week, the California Senate Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support passed Senate Bill 1247, a measure authored by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) which would require content creators who feature their minor children and receive compensation for that content to delete or edit the material if requested by the child after they turn 18.
With the rise of social media, specifically YouTube, family vloggers have exploded in popularity, many filming their daily lives and raking in thousands of dollars in ad revenue, sponsorships, and advertising. According to Goldman Sachs Research, the influencer economy stood at roughly $250 billion in 2023 and is expected to nearly double to $480 billion by 2028. Many family vloggers include their young children in their content, filming intimate details of their personal lives for their audience of millions to see.
In 2024, popular family vlogger Ruby Franke was sentenced to 30 years in prison for four counts of aggravated child abuse. Ms. Franke, who was known for documenting her strict parenting style on social media, had over 2.5 million followers on her YouTube channel in which she documented the lives of her six children and chronicled her parenting strategies, which included punishing her children by withholding food. Following her arrest and trial, Shari Franke, her daughter, championed “Right to Delete” legislation in Utah, which was signed into law in March of last year.
“A generation of children whose lives have been posted for public consumption have no way to control their image,” said Senator Padilla. “We need to bolster our landmark privacy protections and give modern performers control of what was shared of them as a child.”
SB 1247 would require content creators who feature their minor children and receive compensation to delete or edit the material if requested by the child after they reach 18. The bill builds off of Senate Bill 764, a measure previously authored by Senator Padilla that became law in 2025.
SB 1247 is supported by prominent children’s online safety advocates and former child performers.
“As a former child performer, I was 12 years old when my face was superimposed onto pornographic content, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. As a teen, I faced kidnapping plots, stalkers, and mass media coverage of the most intimate and vulnerable details of my life…” said former child actor Alyson Stoner, now a certified mental health practitioner and child advocate. “Senator Padilla’s bill gives children something my generation never had: the right to their own image, and the legal means to protect it.”
“Even before social media, I experienced the risks of growing up in the public eye—receiving inappropriate mail as a child and having my appearance discussed online as a teenager without my consent” said former child entertainer and SAG-AFTRA LA Local Board member Jillian Clare who testified for the bill in Senate Judiciary Committee. “While SAG-AFTRA has long fought for protections for young performers, millions of children online have none, which is why SB-1247 is so critical: it gives former child influencers the right, once they turn 18, to reclaim control over their digital footprint and request the removal of content created about them as minors, ensuring their childhood does not become a permanent, unchangeable record they never agreed to.”
“When I was 13 years old, I and many of my fellow underage performers had superimposed images and videos of our faces placed on sexually explicit content… It became expected as just “part of” being young and in the public eye, because there was nothing we could do about it” said Jennifer Stone, SAG-AFTRA member and former child entertainer. “Many parents encouraged their kids to dress more provocatively or do things for attention on the internet to get likes and also earn money to support the entire family before the child could fully grasp what they were doing. Today social media has made the pursuit of fame and the risk of exploitation more accessible than ever because you can pursue it from your very own living room anywhere in the world.”
“California has always been a leader when it comes to protecting child performers.” said Chris McCarty, Founder of Quit Clicking Kids, an advocacy group instrumental in the passage of similar legislation in other states. “It is critical that they enact SB 1247 to expand those protections into the digital age.”
SB 1247 passed the Senate Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection Committee by unanimous vote of 9-0 and the Judiciary Committee by unanimous vote of 13-0. The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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Steve Padilla represents the 18th Senate District, which includes the communities of Chula Vista, the Coachella Valley, Imperial Beach, the Imperial Valley, National City, and San Diego. Prior to his election to the Senate in 2022, Senator Padilla was the first person of color ever elected to city office in Chula Vista, the first Latino Mayor, and the first openly LGBT person to serve or be elected to city office. Website of Senator Steve Padilla: https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/