Children in ads: the extra care AI demands

Children appear in a great deal of marketing: school admissions, baby products, family restaurants, clinics, clothing, back-to-school offers, NGO campaigns. Their presence makes an ad warm and relatable. It also brings obligations that adults do not.

AI adds a new dimension. It can generate realistic children who do not exist, and it can alter real children's images. Both require more care, not less.

Real children: consent comes from adults

In Kenya, the Data Protection Act treats children's data with particular care and requires parental or guardian consent for processing it. Photos and videos that identify a child are personal data. Before using a real child in any ad:

• Get written consent from a parent or guardian, specifically for advertising, and specifically for AI use if you will use AI with the image
• Explain where the image will appear and for how long
• Let them withdraw consent, and honour it promptly
• Avoid identifying details: full names, school uniforms with visible names, home locations
• Never show a child in a way that could embarrass them later

Schools should ask for consent at enrolment, with a clear opt-out, and keep a list of children whose images may not be used.

Generated children: safer, with limits

Generating children who do not exist can be a respectful alternative to using real children's images. It avoids consent and privacy risks for real families. But:

• Never generate a child to resemble a real child.
• Never present a generated child as a real pupil, patient or customer.
• Keep scenes appropriate: ordinary, safe, age-appropriate activities only.
• Never sexualise, endanger or demean a child in any image, real or generated. Platforms and the law treat this with the utmost seriousness, and so should every brand.

Rules in Tari Studio

Tari Studio's rule is clear: only upload or make pictures, clips and audio of people who agreed to appear in your ads, and of children only with a parent's or guardian's consent; never imitate a real person. Privacy and pictures of people.

When describing scenes with children, be explicit about what is appropriate: "a seven-year-old reading in a bright classroom", "a toddler laughing with her father at a kitchen table". The AI director writes those details into the prompt, and you can check Prompt we sent on every result.

Marketing to children

There is another side: advertising aimed at children. Be careful with products that are unhealthy, unsafe or expensive, and with tactics that pressure children to nag parents. Talk to parents about products for children; let children enjoy content that is honest and kind.

A simple principle

Ask: if this child's parent saw this ad, would they be proud or worried? If there is any doubt, do not publish it.

Read our full approach to consent.