Hasbro Is Asking ‘Peppa Pig’ Child Actors to Sign Away Their Voices to AI, and the Industry Is Pushing Back Hard
Few children’s shows have the cultural reach of ‘Peppa Pig’. Created in 2004, the beloved British animated series has been broadcast in more than 180 countries, generating billions of dollars for Hasbro, which acquired the property in 2019. The show’s enduring charm has always rested on one particular creative choice, using real child actors to voice its young characters, giving the series a warmth and authenticity that continues to resonate with preschoolers and their parents worldwide.
That authenticity is now at the center of a significant industry controversy. Hasbro has been aggressively expanding into artificial intelligence, launching Sixth Wall, a dedicated AI studio, and forming a strategic partnership with AI audio company ElevenLabs to bring its iconic characters into what it describes as the AI era. An AI demo replica of ‘Peppa Pig’ was even presented at Axios’ AI+NY summit, where Hasbro AI Studio CEO Bertie Thomson and ElevenLabs’ head of partnerships Dustin Blank showcased the technology alongside similar demonstrations for other Hasbro characters.
As Deadline exclusively revealed, Hasbro is now asking child actors on the animated series to sign over their voices to artificial intelligence under new contract terms. Industry sources said AI clauses are now frequently appearing in kids’ contracts on TV and film projects, but Hasbro’s embrace of the terms on ‘Peppa Pig’ has become a lightning rod for concern. The implications are serious, with the clause theoretically giving the company the ability to clone a child’s voice and deploy AI-generated audio across the entire franchise’s commercial output.
The response from the industry has been swift and forceful. Nearly 1,000 actors, talent agents, parents, and others have signed an open letter organized by the Agents for Young Performers Association condemning contract clauses that mandate children sign their voices over to AI. The U.K.-based AYPA declared in the letter that 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. Though the letter carefully avoids naming ‘Peppa Pig’ directly, Deadline’s sources confirmed that the letter was indeed aimed at Hasbro and its handling of the ‘Peppa Pig’ contracts.
The association described the situation as a “take it or leave it” ultimatum, with the studio’s refusal to remove the AI clause prompting the group to go public with their concerns. The signatories argued that no child should have their future professional identity shaped by an AI model created before they were old enough to understand its consequences, and that a child’s voice should not become a permanent commercial asset before they have the legal and personal capacity to decide for themselves.
A Hasbro spokesperson responded by saying the company was aware of the open letter and that the protection of child performers is core to who Hasbro is. The spokesperson added that as industry standards around AI continue to evolve, the company is committed to engaging with this issue in a responsible and transparent manner. Notably, the statement did not deny that ‘Peppa Pig’ was the subject of the letter.
The controversy lands during a broader moment of reckoning for the entertainment industry over AI and voice rights, with a string of high-profile disputes having already put the issue firmly in the public eye. The fact that the flashpoint is now a beloved preschool program, whose audience is made up of the very children being asked to sign these contracts, has given the debate a particularly charged dimension that shows no sign of cooling down. Whether you think the protections for young performers are sufficient or dangerously inadequate, it’s hard to imagine a more provocative test case than this one, so share your thoughts below on whether you believe children’s voices should ever be part of any AI licensing deal.
