A labor crisis is brewing in Great Britain. That might sound like the kind of boring headline you barely pay attention to when your parents are listening to NPR. But this headline is actually interesting, we swear, because it involves grade-school-age (and sometimes even younger) social-media stars. Or “kidfluencers,” as they are unfortunately known.

Kidfluencing can be lucrative: You might think that that six-year-old on YouTube is just playing with any old toy or gumming any old frozen pizza, but he or she might well have been paid by the toy or pizza company—in the hopes that you, too, will desire that toy or pizza. It’s an ad pretending not to be an ad; the kid being influenced is you.