THETO MAHLAKOANA: Tighter laws are needed to stop children being used as online advertising puppets
Parents are the biggest culprits as they cash in on their child’s influencer status
There’s a new kind of child labour that is growing popular in SA yet has faced little resistance or condemnation. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are filled with the innocent faces of children who have been co-opted into the influencer marketing space. Influencer marketing is when businesses or advertising firms use people with a large online following and presence to promote their products or services for financial or in-kind compensation. Usually parents are the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes, as they not only use their children to garner a more visible and widely shared digital footprint but also seek to monetise their children’s online presence. This can mean children spend hours getting dolled up for photo shoots or have their daily routines disrupted by eager and sometimes exploitative parents who see an opportunity to populate social media pages and make money. Child labour is outlawed in SA, except in the performing arts where regulations ar...
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