The laws governing child performers differ greatly from state to state. It is a parent’s responsibility to understand the applicable laws in their home state and also any state where their child may work. Sadly, there is no comprehensive searchable database of these laws.
On this site, we have provided detailed information related to some of the more production-heavy states:
California
Georgia
Illinois
India (Bollywood)
Louisiana
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Pennsylvania
We also have two other pages of interest: Film Incentives (these are producer incentives that tend to drive other laws in those states) and a page of Introduced Legislation that may not be reflected in the pages above.
Outside of the above locations, a starting point would be the Federal Department of Labor. It doesn’t have details, but will give you a good clue as to whether your state has any regulation at all. Next, we suggest you check your state’s Film Commission. This entity is usually government funded, so they tend to have information about child labor in entertainment. The Directors Guild of American (DGA) keeps this list of Film Commissions.