Jackie Coogan had been an actor since birth, or just about.

His first acting gig was as a toddler in the 1917 silent film, “Skinner’s Baby,” where he played the titular infant. At age 7, he starred alongside Charlie Chaplin in 1921’s “The Kid,” and by the time he turned 21, he was estimated to have earned what would be equivalent to $90 million today.

However, Coogan soon learned that his mother and stepfather had spent nearly all his earnings. He sued, and although he won the case, he received only a small percentage of what’s left of his money.

A year after the lawsuit, the California legislature passed a law, known as the “Coogan Act,” which requires the employer of a child model or actor to set aside 15% of their earnings in a trust, commonly called a Coogan Trust.

Now, in the age of influencers and “kidfluencers” — children who either create their own online content or participate in content created by their parents — lawmakers across the country are looking to implement a Coogan Act for the digital era.

In Colorado, that bill is House Bill 1058, sponsored by Reps. Meghan Lukens, D-Glenwood Springs, and Scott Slaugh, R-Johnstown, and Sen. Matt Ball, D-Denver.

The bill has three main provisions: first, it requires a parent or guardian who features a child in 30% or more of their content and receives at least $15,000 annually in compensation from that content to set aside some of that compensation into a trust for their child until the latter reaches 18.

A second provision allows adults who are prominently featured in their parent or guardian’s online content as a child to request that content be removed from the platform. If the content creator does not remove the photo or video within 30 days, the bill establishes a private right of action for the child and requires the online platform to remove the content.

Lastly, the bill prohibits a parent or guardian from intentionally distributing online content of a minor with the intent of eliciting a sexual response or sexual gratification from the viewer.

Similar laws have been passed in Illinois, California, Minnesota, and Utah, as lawmakers have become increasingly aware of so-called “kidfluencers” allegedly being exploited by their parents and not compensated for their work.

“As we all know, many parents and legal guardians create popular online content that features their young children,” said Slaugh. “These videos often earn real money through ads, sponsorships, and brand deals. The children in these videos do work — they spend their time, their life, appearing on camera and being a part of the online content creation process. However, sadly, in most cases, the money goes directly to the adults only.”

Lukens highlighted the parallels between the bill and the Coogan Act.

“This is definitely something that we are seeing become more common,” she said. “This is a similar conversation to what happened with child actors in California, but, obviously, now it’s much more prevalent with social media. People can make a lot of money off of this, but we’re not seeing protections for kids when the money is being made off of their name, image and likeness.”

Melissa Fausz, a representative of YouTube, said the company fully supports the legislation and similar measures across the country.

“At YouTube, we invest heavily in the safety of our young users, whether they’re watching content or participating in content creation,” she told the committee. “We think this is a balanced approach which is centered on the best interests of kidfluencers and places reasonable expectations on both creators and platforms.”

The bill passed the committee unanimously and will now go to the House Floor for second reading.