Hasbro Asks Peppa Pig Child Actors to Sign Away AI Voice Rights

When UK agents representing child performers on Peppa Pig pushed back on contract language around AI voice use, the studio's response, according to the Agents of Young Performers Association, was effectively: sign or lose the work.

As The Hollywood Reporter reported, the AYPA, a UK-based industry group, published an open letter alleging that a "major studio" owning an "international children's franchise producing a long running animated television series" had asked child voice actors to agree to language permitting the studio to "capture, clone, train, or reuse a child's voice indefinitely." The unnamed franchise was identified as Hasbro's Peppa Pig. Nearly 1,000 actors, agents, parents, and others signed the letter.

The AYPA's core argument is about consent. "Children cannot provide fully informed legal consent," the letter states, "and a parent or guardian's approval should never be used as a blanket licence to capture, clone, train, or reuse a child's voice indefinitely." In the UK, performers cannot join the actors' union Equity until they are 10 years old, and the AYPA argues that parental sign-off cannot stand in for genuine informed consent to permanent commercial licensing of a child's voice.

Hasbro acknowledged the open letter but did not confirm or deny whether Peppa Pig was the franchise involved. The company said "the protection of child performers is core to who Hasbro is" and pledged to engage with AI questions "in a responsible and transparent manner" as industry standards evolve. The AYPA's stated position goes further: it has called for any agreement involving a child's voice to be "fully exempt from all AI usage."

What the reporting does not give you is the actual contract text or any count of how many children have already signed under these terms. The AYPA paraphrases the clause language, and Hasbro has neither confirmed nor denied the specifics. The broader question is whether voice-rights approaches developed around adult performers are simply being extended to children's contracts across the industry, without accounting for the distinct legal status of minors.