Utah lawmakers often say they are out to protect our children. It was, for example, the excuse they gave for passing a law that moves to ban books from every school in the state if a handful of districts or charter schools turn up their nose at them.
One bill passed in the recent session, however, actually does help a few children in a necessary and thoughtful way.
HB322 passed both houses of the Legislature with bipartisan majorities. It requires that social media influencers who use their children in YouTube or other postings, and make more than $150,000 a year in the process, set aside at least 15% of that in a trust fund that those children can have when they turn 18.
Those children can also, when they become adults, have the content they were part of removed from the platforms where they were posted.
The bill mimics laws in other states that, since 1939, have required parents to set aside money earned by child actors in movies and television programs.
The new law was inspired by a repellant case where a Utah mother featured her children in a series of YouTube posts and was later, along with a business partner, convicted of abusing those children.
Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were each sentenced to at least four years in prison.
HB322 is an example of how Utah’s Legislature can do things that actually help people.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
