Parents find workarounds as rules tighten for kidfluencers

Parents of child influencers are reworking how their children appear online to keep their accounts brand-friendly and monetisable as government tightens scrutiny and child safety compliance requirements.

- Pratishtha Bagai & Yash Tiwari

While discussions on banning underage users from social media continue, a provision in the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025 requiring parental consent before a child’s personal data is shared has unsettled brands. But how these rules are applied in practice on social media is often not clearly defined, leaving room for parents of child influencers or kidfluencers to navigate grey areas to keep their children’s accounts brand-friendly.

Across social media platforms, parents are restructuring child-led content. Accounts are increasingly operated under parents’ names, with bios stating management by the mother or father. Videos are framed as family content, featuring parents alongside their children. Platforms’ co-posting options also blur lines of ownership and authorship.

Accounts are increasingly operated under parents’ names, with bios stating management by mother or father