Just like YouTube’s biggest-earning star Ryan Kaji, Australian child influencers Calvin and Kaison have been turning playtime into profit.
Their wildly popular YouTube channel CKN has clocked up more than 12 billion views and 18.7 million subscribers since launching in 2015.
As of 2020, their estimated net worth was $32 million, even though the Sydney-based toy moguls are aged just 11 and 8.
Calvin and Kaison have tapped into demand among a very young audience for videos of children reviewing and playing with toys, with the siblings now reportedly able to earn more than $58,000 a video.
Videos posted online show the mini-millionaires unwrapping and playing with toys, opening surprise eggs and playing games in superhero costumes around the home.
Their most recent videos show them globe-trotting in luxury and dining out in Vietnam.
The boys now have multiple channels operated by their parents and in 2019 they struck a content deal with TV channel Nickelodeon, all of which has helped them amass big followings in countries such as the US, UK, India and Brazil.
Stephanie Scicchitano, general manager of influencer marketing agency Born Bred Talent, said the boys’ “fun, authentic style” is appealing to other children and given their huge number of followers they’d be netting tens of thousands of dollars for each content piece.
“A following like CKN has can see them earning upwards of $50,000 per month just in ads across their YouTube,” Ms Scicchitano said.
Toy-loving American kid Ryan Kaji, the crown prince of YouTube, made nearly $30 million in a year from “unboxing” and reviewing toys and games online.
Now 11, he has since expanded his empire after making his fortune with his YouTube channel Ryan’s World, started by his parents when he was three years old, and the family now earns an estimated $25 million a year.
Since then, so-called “kidfluencing” has exploded into a social media phenomenon, with research suggesting as many as a quarter of Gen Z youngsters aspire to become influencers.
“We are not where the USA is yet with the really young kids going viral in Australia,” Ms Scicchitano said. “But the trend here is for mummy and daddy to do everything online together with their kids, including TikToks.”
She cited Aussie dad Ben Tate and his primary school-aged daughter Zara, who racked up millions of followers during the COVID lockdowns with their TikTok performances, as “the most successful father/daughter duo in Australia at the moment”.
Siblings Pixie and Hunter Curtis, who are managed by their PR guru mother Roxy Jacenko, are also powerful mini-influencers and regularly promote their lavish lifestyle on Instagram.
Last month Pixie said hello to her 12th year with a luxe $100,000 extravaganza that included a full floor of villas at Crown Casino and dining at a swanky Sydney restaurant where kids were served spaghetti, oysters, pizza and what looked like a platter of mocktails.
The millionaire pre-teen rocked up to her party in a black Mercedes and walked down a red carpet while cameras flashed — somewhat fitting for a child estimated to be worth between $1 million to $2 million.
In June, Pixie and her brother Hunter chronicled their luxurious flight from Greece to Turkey in a private jet ahead of the family’s relocation to Singapore.
Ms Scicchitano said anyone in Australia with between two and four million followers, such as Ben and Zara, can charge between $10,000 and $20,000 per TikTok piece.
With “kidfluencing” a growing industry, however, it’s becoming a source of concern for many parents, authorities and child development experts.
Edith Coward University researcher Dr Catherine Archer told The Sunday Times that protections for child influencers are urgently needed in Australia to address issues including child labour, and the privacy and earnings of kidfluencers.
She said while parents claim they are putting money away for their child’s future, there are currently no regulations to ensure this actually happens.
Dr Archer said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is only just waking up to the reality that the laws around child influencers are lagging behind the culture.
Yet as the number of kidfluencers continues to grow, so too do the risks, she added.
“There is a clear need for regulation in this space,” said Dr Archer, who recently published a research paper on concerns around kidfluencers in the online media and culture publication M/C Journal.
“Though France introduced laws regarding children working as ‘kidfluencers’ last year, few regulations to protect children are in place in the rest of the world, including Australia,” she said.
“The kidfluencer culture opens the door for possible child exploitation and a host of other problems.
“Our study has highlighted key concerns regarding privacy issues, commodification, and gendered and stealth marketing of toys to children through advertorials.”
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