In future, parents in Switzerland could be banned from making money from social media posts involving their children, according to a new motion approved by the National Council. The move has been welcomed by child protection organisations on privacy and safety grounds.
Be it guilt-tripping parents with posts of unfairly idyllic family holidays or living vicariously through their children’s antics and mood swings, the practice of “momfluencing” has taken the internet by storm in recent years. These parents - typically mothers - post vlogs, guides, reactions and videos including their children to social media.
Speaking to Blick, managing director of social media agency Webstages Tanja Hermann explained that the most successful Swiss accounts can use their children and platform to advertise anything from toys and children’s clothes to other family-related services. She estimated that they earn 2.500 francs per post by advertising these kinds of goods.
This practice has been criticised by the National Council, which approved a motion to heavily restrict so-called “momfluencing” on Wednesday. The proposal, which was submitted by Green National Councillor Valentine Python, is based on a French law.
Under the plans, while it would not be illegal for parents to post videos or pictures of their child to social media, it would ban the parents from collecting any money earned from posts featuring their kids. Instead, the money accrued from the posts would be transferred to a locked bank account, which the child can access once they come of age.
Speaking to Blick, Regula Bernhard Hug from Child Protection Switzerland praised the move, arguing parents should be disincentivised from using their children in social media posts. "We expect parents to post fewer photos and videos of their children if they no longer earn money from them straight away," she explained.
"Hundreds of children's pictures are posted on the internet every day, which is a huge threat to children's privacy," noted Green National Councillor Raphaël Mahaim. He called for more discussions about how the law could be enforced, suggesting that similar legislation extending beyond influencers should be put on the table.
There are also hopes that the proposal could be used to amend data law in Switzerland, with Mahaim arguing that children’s rights online need to be better protected. He said that child protective services practically never intervene in online cases due to a lack of legal means and resources. He concluded that it shouldn’t be solely up to the parents to regulate their children’s posts on the internet: "If the parents are the problem, there must be [other] ways to intervene."