Hasbro, the U.S. entertainment giant behind Peppa Pig, is asking child actors on the beloved animated series to sign over their voices to artificial intelligence under new contract terms, Deadline revealed. The move has ignited a firestorm across the children’s entertainment industry and drawn nearly 1,000 signatures on an open letter condemning the practice.
Under the new contract terms, child voice actors on the series are being asked to agree to AI clauses that would theoretically give Hasbro the power to clone a child’s voice and use the AI-generated audio across all commercial assets within its franchise. Industry sources say the clause is being presented as a take-it-or-leave-it condition, meaning children risk losing the work entirely if their parents or guardians refuse to agree to the terms.
The Agents of Young Performers Association, which organized the open letter, said AI clauses are now frequently appearing in kids’ contracts across TV and film projects, but characterized Hasbro’s approach on an international children’s franchise as a tipping point. While the letter does not name Peppa Pig directly, industry sources confirmed to Deadline that it refers to the show.
“Where the performer is a child, consent must be treated with the greatest of care,” the letter reads. “Children cannot provide fully informed legal consent 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. Any agreement involving a child’s voice should be fully exempt from all AI usage. No child should have their future professional identity shaped by an AI model created before they were old enough to understand its consequences.”
The letter concludes with a direct declaration: “We reject all contracts that require child performers to surrender voice rights indefinitely and without limits.”
Hasbro responded to the controversy in a statement to Deadline, saying the protection of child performers is core to who the company is. “As industry standards around AI continue to evolve, we are committed to engaging with this issue in a responsible and transparent manner,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company was not able to comment on specific negotiations or contractual arrangements.
Created by Mark Baker and Neville Astley in 2004, Peppa Pig has grown into one of the most recognizable children’s franchises in the world. Season 11 premiered in the U.S. on Nickelodeon in March, featuring a storyline in which Peppa’s brother George is revealed to be moderately deaf. That same month, Hasbro installed Adam Redfern, a writer on The Adventures of Paddington, as the show’s new showrunner.