[00:00:00] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Chris with us. Hi Chris.
[00:00:19] Chris: Hi, Cheryl.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:23] Chris: I sure can imagine every mistake you’ve ever made. Every embarrassing moment, bad grade punishment, everything being put online and preserved indefinitely. Now imagine this information being made public, not by an enemy, but by your family for money and for clicks.
[00:00:45] Some influencers make enough money from their social media accounts, that it becomes a primary source of income, which is fine until they start relying on their children to generate interests and therefore revenue from that account. My gold award project aims to raise awareness about this relatively new form of child exploitation, restore privacy to children on those accounts and ensure that they’re receiving financial compensation for their work.
[00:01:13] Sheryl: And can you tell us about some of the work that you have done to support that project?
[00:01:18] Chris: The first kind of aspect of the project was about raising awareness. So I hosted webinars and I went through a presentation that started with kind of like what we just talked about, like a, a layout of the issue and then some prominent influencers who, who were kind of falling under.
[00:01:36] Description who are using their kids and a lot of their content who are making money off of that content. And then it goes into personal action steps. And I think that was really, really helpful for people to see. Just obviously the easiest first and foremost is to stop watching those accounts to stop giving them to stop giving them that interest that they’re looking for.
[00:01:59] Because once. In a way, once you stop funding them, you’re taking away a lot of the power of those accounts. But I think it’s also important for people to realize how easy it is not to not to enact change, but to, to make a start, to start reaching out to legislators. I mean, once you know who the people are, who are the shareholders in your community, I think that’s when you can really start to make a difference.
[00:02:23] Sheryl: And how did you find those shareholders for your project?
[00:02:27] Chris: Thankfully, I know it’s a little bit different for each date, but I looked up Washington state re representatives and senators, particularly ones from committees who I thought this might be like a relevant issue for. So like youth and families and civil rights and judiciary and labor.
[00:02:45] I thought that those all might be relevant for the project. So I started with them first both senators and representatives and just emailed them and called them just cold called. So I had set up like a certain amount of time every day for that just a couple hours of, of outreach, which was, which was.
[00:03:05] It was really interesting. I got to meet a lot of cool people through that. Even though most of them weren’t super interested right away. Especially because it was a short legislative session, so it was, and it was already started. So a lot of them weren’t looking to create new legislation within that short timeframe.
[00:03:23] But eventually I found somebody who was, and it was a really great experience for both of us.
[00:03:29] Sheryl: And can you share how you made that final connection? Like when you found the person and they were open to it, what kind of conversations did you have after that, to delve into it deeper. And what have you learned about the legislation process from this?
[00:03:43] Chris: It was really nerve wracking for me. Making that connection with Washington state representative, Emily wix because I knew that it was kind of her word that was gonna say if a bill went ahead even just like a draft and then it had to be tweaked and then introduced and given a bill number. And at any, any point during our conversations, she could have dropped it.
[00:04:06] And she could have said like, actually, this isn’t something that I want to pursue. This isn’t. And this isn’t an issue that’s important to me. So that was really scary, but I’ll never forget when I got the email that she said that, yes, this sounds great. Let’s go ahead. So that, that was just really inspiring to me.
[00:04:26] I knew a bit about it already. Due to an amazing librarian, Leah Griffin at my school, and she showed me I can. I can share this link with you, but she showed me how the legislative process works in Washington state. And it’s really helpful. And there’s like a bill tracker and you can watch, as it goes through the steps from like introduction to committee, to floor hearings in the house, and then you can watch it in the Senate.
[00:04:52] And then like when it gets signed into law unfortunately house bill 2032, didn’t get that far, but it was really cool to watch it move along the stages.
[00:05:01] Sheryl: Do you have future plans to try and revive the house?
[00:05:05] Chris: Unfortunately representative wix has retired. So our, our contact remains, but it’s more personal rather than professional.
[00:05:15] And we are, she is still committed to helping me look for new legislators to take up this issue, which is really exciting, cuz we do have four other sponsors of the bill who are, I think potentially interested in reviving it for another session. So that’s something to keep in mind and something to be excited about for me, at least.
[00:05:37] And in Oregon state, we actually have had some interest there as well. So I’m looking forward to kind of adapting it. The adapting, the bill for Oregon state needs.
[00:05:47] Sheryl: With the little bit of work that you’ve done between Oregon and Washington, what are some of the differences you see in those state legislatures in the process that they do?
[00:05:57] Chris: I’m obviously more familiar with the Washington state system. But Oregon is pretty similar. They just have different. The main difference that I noticed was not about the legislative system itself, but about the existing, like child labor regulations that they have. And that’s true for, I mean, that’s true on a state by state basis.
[00:06:18] Sheryl: And how do you find those state by state regulations?
[00:06:21] Chris: Google is your friend. All of my research, but definitely a lot of things that I found just came from going child, labor laws, Washington state, Oregon, state, California, New York, you know a lot of, a lot of places that I thought would be interested and perhaps introducing legislation like this.
[00:06:38] Sheryl: Since I heard about your project, I’ve been reflecting on what I watch.
[00:06:45] and there is a vlog that I watch that started as a family recording for friends and family. And it’s one of those things that went viral and all of a sudden the family was able to create a vlog out of it. And I’ve noticed that the children are in middle school and high school right now. And I have noticed that as I watch their videos, it’s probably not in the
[00:07:09] family vlog category in the same way of some of the stor- of stories that you followed, because they often don’t have their kids in the videos, but they do appear. And I’m just curious as to, when you think about the vlogs like that, where children may appear, but they’re not necessarily central to the core of the program.
[00:07:31] How will your bill, your interest in making these changes affect some of those vlogs also?
[00:07:38] Chris: So what house bill 2032 does, is that it it’s very filtered in terms of what what accounts would actually be regulated in this way. So for example, and I’ve pulled up the bill text now just to just for accuracy’s sake.
[00:07:55] But the account has to be monetized, first of all. So the text says that the number of views received per video segment on any internet platform or network meets the platform or networks threshold for generation of compensation. Or the vlogger receives actual compensation for video content equal to, or greater than 10 cents per view.
[00:08:18] So that’s the first threshold. And that’s basically saying if you are a small account and you’re not making money off of it, and you feature your kids. That’s okay. You know, you’re not, this is not something that you’re doing for the money. This is something that you’re doing more out of, you know, sharing videos with maybe long distance family members, for example.
[00:08:39] And I’ve certainly heard cases like that where, you know, oh, we don’t see our grandmother. She lives in another state or even another country. And, you know, we wanna show what the kids are doing. Completely fine. Right? So this is not, this is not something that the bill is going to be. I don’t wanna say like going after it, but it’s not something that the bill is like related to.
[00:09:03] And then another part of the threshold is saying, which is what you were getting at. Is that at least 30% of the vloggers compensated video content produced within a 30 day period, has to include the likeness name or photograph of the minor child. So that saying, you know, if it is less than that 30%, then it’s, it’s not something that you’re monetizing.
[00:09:27] It, you’re not monetizing your kids, maybe like family life in general, which is fine, but it’s, you’re not making a profit solely out of your kids being in the videos.
[00:09:37] Sheryl: Those are very interesting and specific criteria that really helps frame the conversation. How is vlog in this way handled differently than a television show that happens to have children on it too, because again, you know, I’ve become much more aware after I heard about your, your project.
[00:09:59] You know, the, I watch TV shows and the TV show isn’t about the kids. But again, those. They have episodes where the kids are involved and shown and it’s a family event. But I understand the regulations are different for, for that type of video.
[00:10:16] Chris: There really are no regulations yet for kids in these family vlogs
[00:10:20] so I think that’s like the first place to place to start. A lot of child actors have cougen laws protect them. And that’s also something that depends on the. But those laws, you know, they regulate work hours. They assure that some percentage of the money earned by the kids will be set aside for them in escrow.
[00:10:39] Just so those kids are going to see some of the money that they’re earning later, which I think is really important. And there’s, there’s nothing like that yet for these vlogger accounts. And I think the second point that’s really important to note is that these kids are. Their real lives that are being shown on social media.
[00:10:58] It’s, they’re not playing a part. It’s everything that is about them. And it’s, it’s just going to be out there forever. Even, even if videos get removed, which is. Another provision of the bill that says that kids can remove or request to be removed a video of them once they reach the age of majority.
[00:11:17] So even though there is that provision, I mean, people can still download videos off of the internet. So, and I think a lot of parents through no fault of their own are just not being mindful about what they’re putting out there that the world can keep and hold onto. And somebody, I was having a conversation with recently pointed out.
[00:11:38] As facial recognition technology gets better and as reverse searching gets better even things that you think will be anonymous now may not be in 10, 20 years when these kids are grown up and looking for jobs. This is something that like colleagues, potential, potential bosses and employees like.
[00:11:56] This is it’s all gonna be out there.
[00:11:58] Sheryl: You have also earned your bronze and silver awards. Can you tell us about those projects?
[00:12:04] Chris: Sure. I would love to. My bronze award was about my troop and I created this little informational booklet for the Seattle locks. Which is this really amazing part of Seattle where you can go and you can watch the, you can watch the boats sink and rise.
[00:12:21] And so we created an, a booklet about that for even younger Scouts. And not just for Scouts, you can go, you can go and get that booklet. Anytime you want at the locks. Now it’s a, it’s a permanent fixture there, but I like to think that we did a good job kind of explaining the purpose of the locks, how they work.
[00:12:39] Just cool. And you know, to get kids out into nature more, because I think that’s something that we’re. Seeing a lot of, I mean, it, certainly kids still do go out, but not as much as I think they used to. And I think as much as we can make learning a fun experience, you know, as much as we can combine education and enjoyment, I think we’re moving in the right direction.
[00:13:02] So that, that was bronzes award. With my troop 4, 3, 7 43. And silver world, same troop with two of my fellow Scouts. We created a drive, a toy drive for Seattle children’s hospital and also a art workshop for brownie Scouts. So we , we kind of combined a couple of different things in there. This wasn’t as much like education and enjoyment, but I think it.
[00:13:28] The concept of giving back to other people like these brownies were earning a badge and they were having fun with salt and paint and glue, but they were also required in lieu of entry fee to bring a donation to the hospital. And I think that that message of getting something and giving something hopefully really stuck with them.
[00:13:49] Sheryl: How did earning your bronze and your silver and perhaps other girl scout activities help prepare you for going gold?
[00:13:57] Chris: What’s really important is the structure of the highest award system, starting out with your troop and then one or two other Scouts, and then by yourself. And that’s not to say I didn’t have a support system with my gold award, but I understood more about what I needed in that support system from having, from having it be such like a large group project, and then a smaller one.
[00:14:19] And. Just just me. I think that, I think that was the biggest thing that really helped me was understanding when to reach out for help, when to try to persevere and do it on my own. I think that was, I think that was the biggest thing. But I think also that certainly for my civil award, going through the paperwork was a good introduction there, cuz there, there certainly is a lot of it to be filed.
[00:14:43] Sheryl: What did you learn about the gold award process that you didn’t know before you started that might be helpful for others?
[00:14:49] Chris: I think the earlier you start better, I certainly had the idea of what I wanted to do kicking around for a while before I started digging into research. And I think perseverance is just one of the most important things, perseverance, planning, and patience, or the three PS I would recommend to any, any, any project at all, but certainly the gold award project in order to get it, to start it and maintain it and see it through.
[00:15:17] And then. See it through enough to wrap it up all the way at the end, get all your, all your hours done and everything just squared away.
[00:15:26] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:15:30] Chris: When I was cold calling and cold emailing all the legislators and I was receiving a lot of not negative responses, but certainly people who were very, very kind, just not interested at the moment, especially with a, such a short legislative session.
[00:15:46] Like I mentioned earlier, and I think that was really disheartening for me because I so wanted, I so wanted to see something come into legislation and I knew. Like raising awareness would. Enough as it were just because this isn’t something that people have been talking about yet. And I think as, as more kids grow up and we see them at 15 and 18 and 20, we’ll start to hear more of their stories because they’re so young right now that I don’t really think a lot of them understand what’s going on.
[00:16:21] And I think as they grow up and they realize the implications. What’s been going on their whole lives. I think we’ll, we’ll certainly hear a lot more about it and legislation like this will become more talked. So I knew that I knew that advocacy was really important in the project, but I also really wanted the legislation piece to come through as well.
[00:16:42] So just hearing all those people who weren’t, who weren’t quite interested for the session, or maybe not at all, it was, it was definitely hard for me.
[00:16:51] Sheryl: What other girl scout memories do you have to share?
[00:16:53] Chris: Yeah, I think the best ones were the trips with my, with my girl scout troop. We went to port Townsend.
[00:17:00] We went to Portland and actually, since it was my last, my last year with the troop as a scout, although I’m gonna go back and volunteer cuz I’m not ready to leave. Girl Scouts just. We went on a road trip to Montana, and we had a really amazing time. We went to glacier national park and it was so wonderful to see all our hard work doing the fall product sale and cookie sells.
[00:17:24] It, it all came together and I think we had a really, really great time, really great way to wrap up the end of the year and the end. End of Scouts in a certain way for me and, and my friend who was a, an ambassador.
[00:17:37] Sheryl: What do you think kept you in girl Scouts and with your troop, kept your troop together during the 13 years you were in Scouts?
[00:17:45] Chris: It was definitely hard for me because. In my third through fifth grade, I was at a different troop. I was at troop six 80 and it was a huge, huge troop. And I had a lot of fun because with a big trip, you get opportunities that you don’t always, I mean, we had, we always had two or three girls, at least who were in the 3000 seller tier.
[00:18:09] So we, we had a lot of great adventures and camping and just snowshoeing, you know, all the, all the things. And that was really, really cool for me. And I think partly those new experiences, especially. I didn’t go to that big of a school in elementary school. So I think being around all those other Scouts, especially really committed Scouts was what helped me in those early years to see, like, this is some, this is a really cool program and I’m getting all these opportunities that I wouldn’t normally get.
[00:18:41] And then as I got older, I made, I went to a different troop because the troop six 80 didn’t age up with the Scouts. And then this new one did, and it was a lot smaller obviously, cuz the girls were, the Scouts were older. I made some really lasting friendships there and I think that’s what kept me in it.
[00:19:00] Both with the Scouts and with the leaders.
[00:19:03] Sheryl: You also are interested in sustainable practices. Can you tell us about that?
[00:19:08] Chris: One of the organizations I’ve been a part of, not quite as long as girl Scouts, but since sixth grade is sustainability ambassadors and they focus on the triple bottom line equity economy and ecology.
[00:19:25] And I think that’s so, so important because I think a lot of people look at sustainability in a vacuum and they think it’s. Just about buying local and taking short showers and turning off the lights when you leave a room, which is true. And that’s so important. Like I can’t stress how important that is, but it’s not just that it’s about neighborhoods that are food deserts and it’s about places where they don’t have the space to put greenery.
[00:19:52] And it’s about so many things like it’s so hard to shop local. If you don’t have those opportunities available to you. And it’s so hard to. To just keep that in mind, like shopping for healthy food when it’s so much more expensive. And there’s a, there’s a question that they always ask at my at sustainability ambassadors, which is more sustainable, an organic apple that’s been flown 50 miles to land at your store or an apple.
[00:20:21] That’s been grown with pesticides of every kind, but it’s local. And I always found that a really interesting question. And I don’t know that there is a right answer to that, but I think it’s really important that people keep in mind that sustainability has all this nuance and that nuances. I think why I’ve stayed a part of that organization for so long.
[00:20:43] Sheryl: What is in your future?
[00:20:45] Chris: I’m going to be starting college in the fall, which is really exciting for me. I’m hoping to major in political science just because I love, I love policy and legislation and everything. Like it’s a concrete. Change. Like, it’s just words, but words mean so much when they’re in a, when they’re in the form of a bill and a law.
[00:21:06] And I think that they’re the foundation for changing the world. So that’s, that’s what I want to go into. And then in terms of the, the bill house built 20, 32 close contact with the co-sponsors reaching out to even more states beyond just ones on the coast and just generating that. And especially, I think as time goes by and as those children of influencers grow up, it’ll be, it’ll be even more prevalent than it is now.
[00:21:37] Sheryl: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:21:40] Chris: It’s so important to vote and take charge and be in contact with people who make the rules, whether that be teachers or parents or lawmakers, you have a voice and you can’t forget how important that is ever.
[00:21:57] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:21:59] Chris: I’m a little bit weird.
[00:22:00] And when I was little, I didn’t like marshmallow. And I’ve sort of come around on them. But when I was little, I used to ask for just the Graham crackers and chocolate, a girl scout camp, and they always looked at me like I was a little crazy and they were like, just gr- there’s no marshmallow there. I was like, no.
[00:22:18] But now I sort of come around on them and, but I still, I still don’t like to eat it together in this more like I’ll eat the marshmallows separately and then the grand crackers and chocolate together.
[00:22:29] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:22:31] Chris: Thank you.
[00:22:32] Sheryl: Make sure to click, follow or subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:22:46] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your goal award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com.
[00:23:04] Be sure to listen to the newest episodes on your favorite podcast app, as well as view the full video episodes on youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.