Brazilian kid influencers who promote 'get rich quick' methods to kids on TikTok and Instagram are in trouble
It has become popular among Brazilian child influencers to promote 'methods to get rich' on social media such as TikTok and Instagram. In Brazil, prosecutors have sued TikTok for 'earning revenue from young creators who are not of working age,' and the platform is being held responsible.
Brazilian child influencers face legal battles over online fame - Rest of World
Guilherme, a 14-year-old boy from Santa Rita do Sapucai, Brazil, has more than 2 million followers across his Instagram, Kwai and TikTok accounts. The videos he and his management team post generate revenue of 6,000 reals (approximately $1,500) per month, far more than the average monthly salary of an adult in Brazil.
'This boy can be Brazil's new MrBeast ,' Guilherme's manager Yuri Araujo told Rest of World. MrBeast is one of the world's biggest social media influencers with about 592 million followers.
Kid influencers like Guilherme are on the rise worldwide. In Brazil, 83% of 9-17 year olds have social media and WhatsApp accounts, and many check social media every day. As a result, the number of kid influencers who promote ways to get rich online is also increasing in Brazil.
There are a variety of cases where these kid influencers are paid by short video apps such as TikTok and Kwai, earn revenue by delivering advertisements to their followers through affiliate marketing, or make a living by receiving free products and services.
Rest of World found a number of teenagers advertising courses on Instagram teaching people how to become rich by becoming an influencer. These courses are sold on digital marketing platforms Cakto and Kirvano.
Labor by children under the age of 16 is illegal in Brazil unless the creator receives permission from a judge to perform 'artistic labor.' This applies to child actors, young artists and influencers. 'The law aims to protect children and adolescents and allow them to enjoy each stage of their lives in their own time,' said Luisa Carvalho Rodrigues, child and adolescent rights coordinator at the Public Labor Prosecutor's Office.
Rest of World interviewed several teenage content creators who do not have legal work permits, including Guilherme. According to Michelle Freitas of Salvador Influencer, who manages Guilherme, Guilherme has stated on each social media account that he is 14 years old, but he was never asked if he had a work permit when monetizing his TikTok or Kwai accounts. 'He is just starting his career, so he does not have an excessive income and does not need judicial oversight,' Freitas said. At the time of writing, Salvador Influencer had not received any monetary compensation from Guilherme, and explained that the management work is merely 'part of social welfare work.'
When Rest of World contacted TikTok about Guilherme's account, TikTok removed Guilherme's account from its creator rewards program, which pays creators over the age of 18 according to the number of views of their long-form videos. A TikTok spokesperson said, 'We are taking additional measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring.' TikTok also explained that it has a 'robust safety team and uses technology and human resources to remove content interactions that may be harmful to minors.'
Kwai, a subsidiary of Kuaishou Technology, a major Chinese social media company, immediately closed Guilherme's account after contacting Rest of World to say it had 'become aware of the situation.' Kwai said it 'is not affiliated with kid influencers in any way' and that it requires parental approval for users between the ages of 13 and 17. Guilherme was not part of Kwai's official creator program.
A spokesperson for Instagram's parent company, Meta, declined to comment on underage creators using its platform for sales.
In Brazil, child labor on social media has come under strict scrutiny since the Judicial Council, a judicial oversight body,
TikTok has appealed the Labor Court's decision, stating that 'the Labor Court's decision did not mention TikTok's exploitation of child labor, and TikTok was not convicted of that crime.'
A Labor Prosecutor's Office official told Rest of World that 'investigations into TikTok are continuing for allowing kid influencers to monetize their accounts without court authorization,' and efforts are still ongoing at the time of writing.
In addition, Rest of World has also contacted Cakto and Kirvano about the issue of accounts operated by minors. Cakto has suspended one creator's account, explaining that the account was using an account registered by an adult. A Kirvano spokesperson said, 'After an internal investigation, we have confirmed that all accounts flagged by Rest of World were properly registered by users over the age of 18,' noting that they were not accounts operated by minors.
Guilherme decided to become an influencer after receiving an iPhone as a gift from toguro , one of Brazil's top fitness content creators. In just one month, Guilherme gained 8,000 followers on Instagram, which caught the eye of Salvador Influencer.
Guilherme usually films his videos on his iPhone and edits them himself. His manager posts content to Guilherme's account every day, and at the time of writing, his videos have been viewed more than 733,000 times on TikTok. Guilherme makes the most money from TikTok among his social media platforms, earning between 1,000 and 6,000 reals (approximately 25,000 to 150,000 yen) per month.
According to Wagner Alves-Silva, an anthropologist at University College Dublin, in addition to TikTok, Instagram has become an informal workforce in Brazil. According to DeepLab, a research project led by Alves-Silva and others, it is estimated that about 13% of Brazilians (about 27 million people) use Instagram commercially. According to industry estimates , Brazil will be the country with the most social media influencers in the world in 2024. Therefore, Rest of World pointed out that Brazil is one of the world's largest markets for social media users.
Below is a screenshot of a typical Brazilian kid influencer's Instagram account. Many kid influencers have parents who have retired early and are aiming to become millionaires themselves, and there are very few accounts that are run for fun. The profile has a professionally polished photo of the face, and the self-introduction includes a call-to-action phrase such as 'Learn from me now!'
Vanessa, 13, whose mother is a business consultant, sells digital marketing courses on Instagram and has more than 13,000 followers. Vanessa earned about 300 reais (about 7,500 yen) from selling courses on Cakto in January 2025. Vanessa said she spends 90% of her free time on weekends creating content.
Another kid influencer, 14-year-old Fabricio, makes money by posting instructional videos about viral content on Instagram. Fabricio posted a video on how to edit videos, which has been viewed more than 6 million times, and he gained more than 130,000 followers in six months. Fabricio posts videos together with his 38-year-old father, who is supportive of Fabricio's activities.
Fabricio spends three hours a day creating content, and his father claims that 'children will be unproductive if they don't make an effort.' He also said, 'I want my son to grow up big, just like when I sold fruits and vegetables in a Combi (Volkswagen van) to avoid starvation when I was 13 years old,' and '(Unproductive) children who don't make an effort just dance, play, and watch porn on TikTok,' supporting Fabricio's work as an influencer.
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