Bitcoin Forum

How do you feel about ICO/Cryptos using children to promote their business online?

Whether using social networks,micro-blogging, videos, discussions, contents, telegram, etc. A lot of crypto projects are using children to work for them to market their products. Anyway, no matter how the principle to use children is here and we can not deny it. They are thousand and thousand from Tier 3 countries

While we blame large companies like Samsung to use children to work, mining gold in Africa, clothes in Bangladesh, etc... using children "to work" for an ICO/crypto is not much different. OK the kid in a gold extraction plan works in terrible conditions, while bounty hunter just have to go to the cyber cafe sits on a chair but I don't think they should be proud to pay children to make a slave work

I'm not sure if you can call vlogging or other forms of crypto promotion actual slave work because the working conditions are much different than hard labor or sweatshops. Plus you could argue that they are giving children an opportunity to learn valuable social skills and earn money for their future education.

That argument would be rejected in any modern society. 

Children are gullible, vulnerable and exploited daily.  They should not worry about money.  They need to be loved and be free to have fun until they are old enough to be responsible.

I believe they take advantage of children to promote for their business.

By children, around what age range are we talking about? 8 - 10 years old? 12? Either way, I think it's horrible that this kind of practice is being tolerated in some countries - good working conditions or not. Children are not meant to be used for labor. It's never going to be okay whether it involves manual labor or simply an online task. This is parallel to slavery - almost even worst. Countries where this is being practiced should strictly enforce laws against child labor whether its tier 3 or third world or whatnot.

A child has nothing to do in a environmental work, it's not his place. His place is at school, practice a sport, to get fun, etc otherwise personal development cannot be done properly. I talked about children working to mine gold, they don't have an education and it will cause them problems when they will be an adult. Shit jobs, a not so good social circle and so on. Education is everything, in some countries you are recognized and respected depending on your level.
To learn valuable social skills? Oh man, they don't learn anything other than spamming the web, and there are far more important things to learn. They probably have no idea how laws are created and voted, and by who, in their own country.


15-18? At 18 you are still a teen. But I know some are under 15

I started working for crypto when I was 15 years old (late 2013). For me, crypto was a wonderful opportunity because I could earn a lot more money online than I could at a min wage bagboy job or other online methods. I was 16 when I started writing for news sites and at 20 I work with several major projects in the space.

I think a lot of the argument comes down to the nature of the cihild's work. Did they engulf themselves into the space on their own free will, or were they coerced/forced. There is nothing wrong with the first scenario, imo, and everything wrong with the second. I don't think many are arguing that the 12 year old Pocketful of Quarters CEO is being abused. If they are being forced to sit online and promote scam ICOs for pennies an hour that is obviously an issue. If they choose to do it and get paid $20/hour that's not a problem.

To clarify, I'm not from a tier 3 or developing country, either.

The question should be directed to the elites in the industry, what are they doing to prevent/put a stop to this. A system is decentralized does not mean there shouldn't be rules and regulations governing the system. Remember the saying. "Freedom without boundaries is bondage".
Because there aren't any rule governing the bounty system, they feel they can get away with any crime and true they do.

Take a look at one of the highest paid YouTubers out there, Ryan's Toy Reviews. Obviously he's not cashing in the $10-15M annual profits. It's his parents. But in doing so, they're securing the 5 year old's future for 3 generations to come. Sure, they probably force him to do videos on days where he's not feeling all too well.. but most days, he's enjoying himself. Doing what he likes.

There are a lot of families that will use their kids for photo-ops (politicians or executives at companies), bring their kids to work in to soften up fellow employees / partners for deals and public perception, and monetize them online with blogs / SMM pages. As long as the kid isn't being abused and doesn't hate what his parents are doing, it's fine. Is it unethical under certain eyes? Sure. But it all depends on the culture and perspective.

With crypto it's the same thing. I haven't personally seen it that much on here as with other industries, but there's a reason kid stuff has generally higher CPM / RPM advertising rates than other industries. I mean let's compare YouTube CPMs for Crypto, Kids, Music and controversial content (swearing, 18+ stuff that can feature violent video games or topics like medical marijuana): CPM (cost per 1K views, regardless of monetized or unmonetized) - Crypto = $3-6 direct through Adsense while external would be $5-25, Kids = $5-12 direct, Music $1-2* (varies highly, for example if VEVO or outside), controversial content $.10-$.6.

Crypto and Kids are 2 of the best industries for monetization. Finance is great but it doesn't have the same hype as both kids stuff and crypto enthusiaists.

Life in third-world country is complicated, mate. If I could go back to when I was 12 or 13 and some people offered me 10-20 USD for a couple of hours sitting in a coffee, doing some non-against the law light work, I would have said agree without any hesitation (yes you may say I would be promoting some scam ICOs but like I said people born in poor couldn't care that much).

In developed countries, jobless people even may get subsidy from government and have some kind of "traveling" to developing countries but on the contrary, there's nothing like "unemployment benefit" in those you called Tier 3 countries. Children in developing countries have tendency to earn & save money since early ages. I would say I disagree using children for any laboring purposes but in some cases, if it is fair (win-win) situation, everything should be acceptable.

That's just too harsh then. Why not give to them freely? Children are young, fragile, innocent and can easily get hurt. If they so wish to help them, there are other million ways around it, without enslaving those poor children :(

When you put it that way, it sounds okay. But then again, what about those children that just have to do it cause they have no choice (can't find jobs with enough good pay)? And what about the mental stress they will go through? Also, not excluding the fact that making minors richer than they were or should be, will only turn most of them into addicts, brats and.... However, am not saying they all will, but only stating the obvious fact of this generation.

Maybe not completely. There are many children model agencies for advertising, I am talking about legit business in civilised countries, all legal and regulated.

I think that the parents have to make a sensible choice if they see their children can make some money that may later give them a better education or pay their College in the future. If the "work" consists mostly in acting, posing, etc... and is limited in time and accepted willingly by the children (they normally like earning some money) I don´t think is something that could have a bad effect on them. It could actually be positive, as the are learning a profession by doing... maybe starting an acting career. How is that worse that memorising some of the nonsense that plagues the education systems.

 Think of it this way: Children do have their own share of task at school and it is all right if they have to do something that requires some effort.

Obviously, careers or jobs that prevent them from having a normal development, friends, time to play, etc... are out of the question for me. Also, any benefit must be exclusively for their welbeing, education or saved for their future needs.


I would not consider acceptable to use the children´s image for anything that are not products for children. For me, seeing an add with children just trying to manipulate the parents out there is a red signal for not ever buying the brand.

I don't know much about ICO's using childrens. Are you talking about childrens who join bounties? If yes, that's difficult question. Personally, I started with cryptos when I was under 18 and I don't think it's something wrong. In perfect society kids shouldn't work. They have to focus on school and enjoy their childhood. But in my country it's common thing that teenagers (15-18 years) are working on their summer vacations. By doing it they easier can integrate themselves in adult life, get valuable experience and learn that it's not very easy to earn money. Later they can buy new smartphone or something instead of asking money from parents. But offcourse, I'm not talking about these slavery jobs in 3rd world countries where children are used. Same, I don't think that children should work as full time bounty hunter, but it's nothing bad that they can make few bucks for lunch or ice cream. And general, I don't think that even adults should work as full time bounty hunters - it's just not serious...

Oh... those are not chidren... at that age they are normally greedy selfish bastards extorting their parents for the latest X-Box  ;D ;D

Isn't it the parent responsibility to be able to feed the kids. I see a difference between 2-3 weekly and all day long in a cybercafe.
I was more interested in the other side. While firms are blamed for using children to manufacture your clothes. It isn't a problem when it's about ICO, because he earns a couple of dollar sitting 8h per day in a cybercafé

I wouldn't mind if my child, or any other child, acted in a commercial, even if it was an ICO. I'd only worry about it being legit since there are many that blow up in investor's face. The world "work" can be understood in various ways. If your photo is used and you get paid, is that work? If you tell a couple things into the camera, is that when work begins, or maybe it is when a child performs a magic trick on stage before a crypto conference?
There are some forms of "work" that are ok with my ethics and some that aren't. Spamming the forum for a few dollars isn't.

I have worked for that kind of money from 15 to 18 yr. teaching math, physics and English to others. Perhaps the key is that I decided to do it because I wanted and I was not living in a third world country at all. Should I have found about a forum like this at that age... I would have put 5 hours +  a day  ;D

I've lived in Costa Rica before and have seen a lot of children who are forced to work. The first few years I was shocked, but after a time you tend to become numb to it. Child labor, no matter what type it is robs children of so much. They miss out on being mentally stimulated at school, social interactions with other children, and playing. Children who play learn so many things, group interactions, friendship, dependence etc. 

Here's a case study on how child labor affects children: https://www.worldvision.com.au/docs/default-source/school-resources/how-does-child-labour-affect-children---india-case-study-worksheet.pdf?sfvrsn=2

I just read it, and wow. Not only the educational negligence but the health and perpetuating poverty were also pretty high on the list of how children are affected.

You could argue that working in crypto as a child is not as bad as a sweatshop in India, but there are still consequences.

today many companies employ underage children ... maybe because of economic demands too ... the important thing is they don't feel forced and get money from their work ... just in the eyes of the law hiring children is a mistake

Working with children today is the most profitable way to earn money and many have proved it.
Take a look at YouTube channels the leaders in viewing today are children's channels and reviews of children's toys.
Children are what we live for. Looking at the child, people are much faster to part with their money for him or something more.
I began to earn my own money at the age of 13 and did not consider myself a child at this age! It was nice bringing home the money. I could buy myself small things and my parents were very happy with it. At the age of 14, I bought my first computer in which my parents did not invest a penny and I am PROUD of it.
Each child is individual: Someone in 10 years behaves for 5, and the other in these 10 years behaves as a conscious adult.
I do not condemn the fact that companies attract children to promote their product - this is quite normal. And maybe these children like this work and in the future they will be great developers looking at what they are promoting...

DADI stands for 'Decentralized Architecture for Democratic Internet' - it's a platform for web services that offers computing power, database storage and content delivery, etc. to support businesses. In a traditional setup, you will be buying a server or a set of servers (virtualized or dedicated) typically located in one place and as a result are limited in terms of performance because of the further away from the user from the physical location of the hosting, the slower the overall performance. In DADI you are paying for a series of interconnected VPCs, which massively localise your content through the use of distributed nodes numbers in the tens of thousands.

i would say the same thing about the majority of adults.  People are exploited daily by capitalism and they are extremely vulnerable.

YouTube CPMs for Crypto...
Wow, Google/YouTube had banned ICO/crypto ads, but....


(From Sept. 2018)
"The U.S. tech giant Google is set to update its ad policy in October, reallowing some crypto businesses to advertise on its platform. The company announced this in an official post Tuesday, September 25.

According to the official announcement, starting in October Google will allow registered cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise on its Google Adwords platform, targeting the U.S. and Japanese audiences. The announcement says:

    “Advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve. Advertisers will be able to apply for certification once the policy launches in October.”

This decision follows an announcement in March that all crypto-related businesses will be banned from buying ads on Google Adwords, described by industry insiders as “unfair” and "troubling."
https://cointelegraph.com/news/breaking-google-to-reverse-crypto-ad-ban-for-exchanges-advertising-in-us-japan


Not always time to know the changes in big news stories, thanks for the tip/clue.

For me in my opinion, I don't think is a good idea to use children in the ICO its very unprofessional just for them to earn here.

And most of the ico owner who are implementing this type of methods are exploiting the children which is not good in my point of view.