The law, children and content creation

Abstract

This mini-dissertation assesses the inadequacies of existing legal and policy structures in Ghana and South Africa concerning child content creator's rights. The research highlights that the rapid increase in digital content creation and related commercialisation, including the practice of "sharenting," which exposes children to risks like economic exploitation and severe privacy violations because current laws were designed for traditional physical labour. Case studies of some Ghanaian and South African child influencers are presented to demonstrate how current laws fail to mitigate issues such as trolling, data misuse by third parties, and the lack of protection for content-generated income. Because national legislation often defaults to protections for traditional labour, the study examines modern legislative frameworks from Kenya, France, and the USA to identify effective regulatory solutions. Ultimately, the dissertation recommends that Ghana and South Africa must update their statutes, policies and laws to better protect child content creators' rights.