Generally revise laws related to creation of profitable family video content featuring minor children
Summary
HB 392 creates the “Child Digital Protection Act” and targets monetized family and influencer content that features minor children. The bill requires certain content creators who earn compensation from online video content and who feature a minor child in at least 30% of their compensated content to set aside a portion of gross earnings in a trust for the child’s benefit. The required trust contribution scales with the amount of child-focused content: 10% of gross earnings when the child appears in 30% to under 50% of the content, 25% when the child appears in 50% to under 75%, and 50% when the child appears in 75% or more.
Impact
The bill adds a new part to Title 30 of Montana law and creates new duties for monetized content creators, online platforms, and affected minors. It defines key terms such as content creator, online platform, video segment, likeness, and minor, and it imposes recordkeeping requirements on creators whose content meets the bill’s thresholds. It also gives minors a future right, upon reaching age 18, to request permanent deletion of qualifying video segments, and it creates a private right of action with injunctive relief, statutory damages, actual damages, and profit recovery for violations. The bill is aimed at protecting privacy and ensuring financial compensation for minors whose images and identities are used in profitable online content.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly supported throughout the legislative process. It passed the House committee and floor votes unanimously, and it also cleared the Senate with strong majorities, with only a small number of dissenting votes on some Senate readings. The final House concurrence in Senate amendments was also unanimous. Overall, the voting history suggests a generally favorable view of the bill’s child-protection and compensation framework.
Contention
There is little evidence of major public contention in the available record, since no committee transcripts are provided and most votes were overwhelmingly positive. The main policy issues implicit in the bill are how to define when family content becomes sufficiently monetized to trigger trust obligations, how much of the earnings should be reserved for the child, and how practical the deletion and recordkeeping requirements will be for online platforms and creators. Any opposition likely centered on administrative burden, privacy/First Amendment concerns, or the difficulty of regulating family content and platform-hosted media, but the voting record shows these concerns did not prevent passage.