ASSEMBLY SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4302

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  APRIL 10, 2025

      The Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4302.

      As amended and reported, this bill requires family members and caregivers who operate vlogs on social media platforms for compensation and use their children or minors in their care in the vlog to compensate the children or minors.  Under the bill, “vlog” means content shared on an online platform in exchange for compensation.

      Specifically, the bill provides that a minor under the age of 16 is considered engaged in work as a vlogger or producing a vlog when the following criteria are met at any time during the previous 12-month period:

      (1) at least 30 percent of the vlogger's compensated video content produced within a 30-day period includes the likeness, name, or photograph of the minor.  Content percentage is measured by the percentage of time the likeness, name, or photograph of the minor visually appears or is the subject of an oral narrative in a video segment, as compared to the total length of the segment; and

      (2) the number of views received per video segment on any online platform meets the online platform's threshold for the generation of compensation or the vlogger receives actual compensation for video content equal to or greater than $0.10 per view.

      The bill also provides that the vlogger is required to set aside gross earnings on the video content including the likeness, name, or photograph of the minor in a trust account to be preserved for the benefit of the minor upon reaching the age of majority, according to the following distribution:

      (1) where only one minor meets the content threshold described in the bill, the percentage of total gross earnings on any video segment including the likeness, name, or photograph of the minor that is equal to or greater than half of the content percentage that includes the minor as described in the bill; or

      (2) where more than one minor meets the content threshold described in the bill, and a video segment includes more than one of those minors, the percentage described in paragraph (1) above for all minors in any segment must be equally divided between the minors, regardless of differences in percentage of content provided by the individual minors.

      The bill exempts the work of minors engaged in work as a vlogger and of producing a vlog under the circumstances of the bill from State working hour and certain other labor requirements that would otherwise apply to working minors.

      The bill requires all vloggers whose content features a minor under the age of 16 engaged in work as a vlogger or in the work of producing a vlog to maintain certain records and to provide the records to the minor on an ongoing basis.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments:

      (1)  add a definition of “name” that includes the actual or assumed name, or nickname, of a living individual that is intended to identify that individual;

      (2)  update the synopsis;

      (3)  clarify that certain records are to be maintained and provided to certain minors who are engaged in work as a vlogger, in addition to certain minors engaged in the work of producing a vlog; and

      (4) make technical changes.