Responsible entrepreneurship in a family business context: is your child the golden ticket?

This study explores the ethical, financial, and systemic dynamics of child-centred digital enterprises, a distinct and under-researched form of family entrepreneurship. It introduces the bespoke Child Influencer Family Enterprise (CIFE) Framework, integrating Family Systems Theory (FST), Responsible Entrepreneurship (RE), and Responsible Innovation (RI) to analyse how family systems function when centred around a child’s digital entrepreneurial activity. Employing a convergent-parallel mixed-methods design, data were collected from 60 parent or guardian participants managing monetised child influencer accounts. Quantitative findings reveal that income dependency and high multi-platform exposure independently and additively increase the likelihood of reported negative impacts on child influencers. Qualitative insights reinforce these findings, highlighting role conflict, economic dependency, constrained child autonomy, and regulatory voids. The study contributes to entrepreneurship and family business literature by offering a novel theoretical lens, comparing findings with existing research in digital labour and family business ethics, and providing actionable policy recommendations aimed at safeguarding child welfare within digital family enterprises, particularly referencing UK-specific regulatory frameworks.