Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

Podbit · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

It started with a mix

Explore episode Jul 10, 2026
Society & Culture
The Weird Ethics of Kids on Instagram as Unpaid Ad Props

It started with a mix · Jul 10, 2026 Society & Culture

Rob Beckett raises a genuine ethical grey zone: when reality TV parents post sponsored content featuring their children in a bath for a bubble bath brand, who gets the five grand? The parent does — but the child is doing the work. Chantel Nash, as an actual child modeling expert, says the rules don't fully cover social media.

Where this was said

Chantel Nash: Child Modeling Earnings, Instagram Ethics, and the Which? Advert

At 52:10 · chapter starts 51:15

Chantel Nash explains the legal framework for child modeling earnings: all payments must go directly into a bank account in the child's name, which parents cannot access. Etta's ongoing wet wipe campaign buyout payments have already funded a couple of years of future university costs. Rob Beckett raises a broader ethical question: when parents post sponsored content on social media featuring their children — a child in a bath for a bubble bath brand, say — the payment goes to the parent with no legal protection for the child at all. Chantel, as a practitioner of the legitimate industry, confirms the rules do not adequately cover social media. The conversation then moves to a family campaign Chantel did for Which?, in which the whole family was involved and therefore on the agency's books. She was required to run into the sea for a beach shoot — filmed in March, dressed for summer. The day before, she mentioned she could not swim. On the day, the production company brought in an RNLI officer to brief the cast on riptides. Chantel ran into the sea anyway, ended up on the side of buses across the country, and her children got paid.

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