Argos faces backlash over ‘influencer kit’ for toddlers

Argos has ignited a debate among parents and child development campaigners after promoting a wooden “influencer kit” aimed at toddlers.
Critics have warned that the play set could normalise the precarious world of digital labour and prematurely expose children to the pressures of online visibility.
The toy, designed for children aged two and over, is made entirely from wood and includes a tripod stand, a miniature camera with an adjustable aperture lens, a smartphone model, a tablet, and a microphone. All the items can be stored in a carrying pouch.
Argos currently advertises the £15 product on its website as a tool designed to “cultivate children’s storytelling skills and creativity through career role-play”.
However, the decision to position the potential of social media stardom on the same level as more traditional role-play has drawn criticism from advocacy groups.
Daisy Greenwell, co-founder and director of the advocacy group Smartphone Free Childhood, said: “The best play is about real life – mud kitchens, toy ovens, doctor kits – children copying the world around them and making sense of it.”
She added: “There’s something a bit off about dressing up a very adult, very performative world as a wholesome wooden toy. Influencing is all about chasing attention, so we have to ask what we’re teaching children to value, if that’s the world we’re inviting them to copy.”
The brand Rini has previously been heavily criticised for marketing cosmetic face masks specifically to young children, a move dermatologists described as dystopian, warning that the beauty industry is now expanding its reach from teenagers to toddlers.
Dr Francis Rees, an expert in childhood and digital culture from the University of Essex, said: “While it may be tempting to dismiss this as simply another example of questionable children’s toys, I think it’s more useful to see it as part of a broader shift in how childhood is being imagined.”
She said: “Toys have long reflected adult roles, with doctor sets, kitchens, and toolkits being normal parts of growing up. With ‘influencer’ now ranking highest in surveys of children’s future career aspirations, this product is not entirely surprising.”
However, Rees warned that influencer culture was not just another profession to be mimicked. “It is built around visibility, performance, and the monetisation of everyday life,” she noted. “What toys like this normalise is the idea that children are not only participants in play, but also potential objects of attention, as individuals who are watched, followed, and engaged with as ‘content’.”
According to Rees, whose research focuses on digital risks, this increased normalisation of visibility can expose children to significant dangers concerning privacy, digital permanence, and identity formation – concerns directly reflected in the Unicef Industry Toolkit on Children’s Rights and Digital Marketing. “So, while this toy may well function as imaginative play, it also reflects a wider cultural moment in which forms of highly visible, and often precarious, digital labour are becoming normalised from an early age,” Rees said.
“The question is not simply whether children should play at being influencers, but what kinds of risks we are comfortable with taking in the process, and what career expectations we are preparing them for.”
An Argos spokesperson said: “We offer a broad selection of toy sets that encourage imaginative and creative play. This product is part of that wider range, which includes items such as our Chad Valley Tool Box, Wooden Toaster and Pizza Counter sets, designed to help children have fun.”