Jake Paul interviews Lil Tay on YouTube. Source: YouTube

A pint-size girl wearing a jean jacket with the tags still on fans a stack of $100 bills at the camera. She gets in the driver's seat of a red Mercedes-Benz, though her legs are too short to reach the pedals. "This is why all y'all f----- haters hate me b----," Lil Tay says in a squeaky, prepubescent voice. "This s--- cost me 200,000. I'm only 9 years old. I ain't got no license, but I still drive this sports car b----. Your favorite rapper ain't doing it like Lil Tay." The video has been viewed more than 9 million times on Instagram alone. It's all typical speech from the preteen provocateur, who has 1.7 million Instagram followers and 150,000 subscribers on YouTube, not to mention starring in other influencer's Snapchats. Her Twitter account was recently shut down. It's a remarkable feat for anyone — especially considering Lil Tay, at her self-proclaimed age of 9, is too young to have an account on any of these social media platforms. Despite her age and the obviously inappropriate content, she's been able to get verified on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Due to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 13 is the minimum age to have an account on most social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Google's YouTube requests users be over 18 but will accept users 13 and older if they have parental consent or if they are an emancipated minor. But no one really verifies a user's age. They simply ask users to report how old they are — and it's easy to lie. "Verifying [age] would be hard," said Brendan Gahan, founder of social media marketing agency Epic Signal. "These platforms are concerned about scale, and that [blocking popular young influencers] seems counter to your ability to scale." Because of lax regulation on social media, no one checks what the owners of underage accounts are doing, how much they are getting paid and how many hours they are working. "This is an area that clearly needs definition," said Charley Moore, a California attorney and CEO of online legal technology company Rocket Lawyer. "This is an area where adults are clearly getting financial gain."

Instagram, YouTube and Snap told CNBC they take down accounts when they find out the user is under 13. YouTube and Snap declined comment on Lil Tay's accounts specifically, but a source with knowledge of her Instagram account said it is run by a parent. All three allow child accounts if it is managed by an adult. Tay and her management did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

Social child stars

Justin Bieber Getty Images

"There are no age verification mechanisms for these platforms," said Liz Gottbrecht, vice president of influencer marketing platform Mavrck, which has worked with kids alongside their families. "They may stipulate, but there's no checks in place. ... You can throw in whatever date you want." Many child stars list some sort of management company to show the channel isn't only run by the child. Although Lil Tay once posted an Instagram Story saying she wasn't managed by anyone, her account now says she's managed by 24-year-old Miranda Cosgrove, best known for starring in Nickelodeon's "iCarly." Cosgrove's publicist denied the singer and actress was Lil Tay's manager. Previously she claimed her management was Gucci Gang, which is a song by rapper Lil Pump. CNBC could find no actual Gucci Gang, save a competitive video game team called Gucci Gang, which competed in a "Splatoon 2" video game championship in April. An investigation by Jezebel suggested Lil Tay may actually be the daughter of a real estate agent, and her mom may be filming the clips. The South China Morning Post went so far as to investigate the locations of her shoots, revealing many of them take place in the not-so-hard suburban neighborhoods of Vancouver despite Lil Tay's blustering. Global News interviewed the owner of a Mercedes featured in one of her videos, who said that Lil Tay's mother asked him if her daughter could pose in his car but he did not realize what the photo was for. Despite Lil Tay's rapid rise to fame, her style of content is unsuitable for brands, making it hard for her to score sponsorships or premium advertising deals, Influential's Detert said. "Whether she rises to the top is based on society and whether they want to watch a car wreck," he said.

No clear rules