Hasbro faces backlash over Peppa Pig AI voice cloning
A US entertainment giant's move to secure perpetual AI rights to the voices of child actors on a beloved British animated series has sparked a major industry revolt over the exploitation of minors.
Hasbro is requiring child voice actors on the animated series Peppa Pig to surrender their vocal rights to artificial intelligence under new contract terms. The clause grants the US entertainment giant the ability to clone these young performers' voices in perpetuity for use as commercial assets within its franchise. Industry insiders note the company has presented this demand on a "take it or leave it" basis.
Nearly 1,000 entertainment professionals, organized by the Agents of Young Performers Association (AYPA), have signed an open letter condemning the practice. While the letter deliberately avoids naming the specific property, industry sources confirmed it targets Hasbro's handling of the hugely popular cartoon. The signatories warn that such contracts allow studios to train AI learning models, generate artificial audio, and license a minor's voice data to third parties without obtaining consent or paying royalties.
The dispute underscores a growing transatlantic friction over the application of AI to European-originated intellectual property. Peppa Pig debuted in the UK in 2004 and became a global cultural staple before Hasbro acquired the brand from Entertainment One in 2019 for $3.8 billion. Now, an American conglomerate's pursuit of AI assets is clashing with established norms surrounding child protection.
“Where the performer is a child, consent must be treated with the greatest of care,” the letter reads. The professionals argue that a parent or guardian’s approval “should never be used as a blanket license to capture, clone, train, or reuse a child’s voice indefinitely.” They are demanding that any agreement involving a child’s voice be fully exempt from 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.
A broader industry shift
The Peppa Pig contract is not an isolated incident but a reflection of an increasingly common strategy in entertainment production. By securing indefinite rights to digital voice clones, studios can potentially eliminate the need to rehire actors for future sequels, merchandise, or promotional campaigns. For investors, this represents a margin-expanding opportunity, but for the creative labor market, it signals a precarious future where human likenesses are commodified without ongoing compensation.
Hasbro confirmed its awareness of the backlash in a statement to Variety. The company said the “protection of child performers is core to who Hasbro is.” It added that as industry standards around AI continue to evolve, it remains “committed to engaging with this issue in a responsible and transparent manner.”
