Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on gambling ads, identified for investigation following complaints received and intelligence gathered by the ASA.Ad description
A TikTok post from Mia Mon’s account, @miaxmon, seen on 7 January 2026, featured a video of Mia Mon with overlaid text stating “pov: it’s Friday night and you’re in ur [sic] cosy girl games era”. It featured scenes of Mia Mon in the bath, doing her hair, lighting candles, preparing food and sitting on the sofa playing a lottery-style and bingo-style game on Midnite, an online betting platform, on her TV. Text at the bottom of the post stated “#ad… Paid partnership”.Issue
The complainant, whose 13-year-old son had seen the ad on his TikTok feed, challenged whether the ad included an individual who was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s and therefore breached the Code.Response
Dribble Media Ltd t/a Midnite said they had assessed whether Mia Mon was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s within the meaning of the relevant Code rule as well as the CAP Guidance on ‘Gambling and lotteries advertising: protecting under-18s’ and had concluded that she was not.They explained that Mia Mon was an online content creator active on TikTok and Instagram, where her content consisted predominantly of lifestyle and general entertainment reflecting her day-to-day life and work as a professional creator. On TikTok, that included short-form videos showing everyday routines, personal experiences, travel, and creator-led entertainment typical of the platform, alongside commercial collaborations with mainstream consumer brands.
They said her Instagram presence complemented that, focusing more on photographic lifestyle content, including travel, hospitality, brand partnerships, and attendance at media and industry events. Her brand partnerships included collaborations with adult-oriented consumer brands, such as San Miguel and Royal Caribbean Cruises. She also co-hosted ‘Fed Up’, an unscripted cooking and interview show on YouTube which featured adult guests and discussion of lifestyle and personal topics. The said those activities reflected her position as a lifestyle creator operating within mainstream media and commercial environments, rather than children’s or youth-focused media.
They said that ‘Fed Up’ audience data showed a clear concentration within adult demographics. Approximately 91.6% of viewers were aged 18 years or over, with the largest segment falling within the 25–34 age range (43%), followed by 18–24 (25.8%). Additionally, viewing behaviour indicated that a significant proportion of content was consumed via TV devices (36.5%), alongside computers (26.5%) and mobile devices (23.7%). They believed that suggested a more typical long-form, in-home viewing pattern rather than short-form or youth-led consumption. They said, overall, the audience profile for “Fed Up” aligned with Mia’s broader adult-skewing audience across platforms.
In 2024 Mia appeared as a contestant in Season 5 of ‘Locked In’, a YouTube reality series that featured online creators and influencers. Midnite said they were unable to provide viewing figures for that series given that her role in it had been as a contestant. She also previously livestreamed on Twitch. Midnite said those streams were limited and infrequent and her most recent broadcast was on 14 November 2024. A review of her most recent streams showed they were predominantly conversational, with only occasional gameplay across a range of mainstream titles and did not centre on any single game or franchise. They provided a summary of her latest Twitch streams from March 2022 to November 2024 including the dates and a brief description.
Based on that, Midnite considered Mia’s overall public profile to be that of a lifestyle and entertainment creator whose content was not directed at, primarily associated with, or likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.
They had also reviewed Mia’s audience demographic data across her active social media accounts: Instagram and TikTok. They provided the total follower figures and a breakdown of the ages of those followers for each of those accounts. They said the data showed that over 90% of her audience on both platforms was aged 18 or over, with the clear majority aged between 18 and 34. They said, in absolute terms, the total number of followers registered as under-18 across both platforms was approximately 56,500. They understood that the relevant CAP Guidance stated that a total of 100,000 under-18 followers across platforms was indicative of strong appeal. They said the figure for Mia was materially below that level.
They had reviewed the available analytics for Mia’s Twitch audience and confirmed that the audience profile was broadly consistent with that seen across her other platforms, with a clear skew towards adult users. Based on the most recent available data, they said the majority of viewers fell within the 18–34 age range, with approximately 92% of the audience aged 18 or over. They said that Twitch provided more limited demographic reporting compared to other platforms, and did not allow for an age breakdown of an individual’s followers. However, they were able to provide a breakdown of the age ranges of users who had viewed her profile within the last 28 days.
They believed the figure for Mia’s social media following supported their conclusion that her audience was overwhelmingly adult and did not indicate that she was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.
Furthermore, they said that the tone and presentation of the ad itself were consistent with adult lifestyle content and did not include any elements likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. It depicted Mia in her home engaging in everyday adult lifestyle activities, including preparing food, carrying out personal care routines and relaxing on her sofa before using the Midnite app. They said the setting, styling and activities shown reflected ordinary adult domestic life. The ad did not include any of the elements identified in the Guidance as presenting a higher risk of strong appeal to under-18s. It did not feature youth-oriented themes, exaggerated or animated creative techniques, gaming or streaming culture, or other content associated with youth audiences. It was accompanied by a neutral instrumental music track and did not incorporate stylistic elements associated with youth culture.
Assessment
Not upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications for gambling products must not be likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons, or to include a person who is likely to be of strong appeal to those under 18 years of age. CAP Guidance stated that personalities and brand ambassadors would be assessed both on the basis of their profile and relevance outside the context of gambling ads, and their appearance and behaviour in the ads. The ASA expected advertisers to provide evidence that they had identified what persons or characters were generally known for outside the context of an ad, and had used appropriate sources of data and information to assess their likely level of appeal to under-18s.
We assessed whether Mia Mon was likely to be of strong appeal to UK under-18s on the basis of her social and other media profiles.
We understood that Mia was a 27-year-old online content creator and that the content she posted centred around travel, hospitality, food, everyday lifestyle, brand partnerships, and attending media and industry events. We considered that those subjects were more adult-focused than youth-focused and that they were unlikely to be of significant interest to under-18s. We also understood that she co-hosted “Fed Up”, a food-themed show on YouTube which featured cooking and interviews with adult guests, as well as discussion of lifestyle and personal topics. We considered that the show was primarily aimed at an adult audience, which was reflected in the audience figures provided, and was unlikely to strongly appeal to a younger audience. Mia had also appeared as a contestant on Season 5 of ‘Locked In’ in 2024, a YouTube series that featured online creators who were locked in a house competing in challenges to win prizes. We considered that the content of that programme was primarily aimed at adult audiences and likely would not strongly appeal to under-18s.
We understood that she had collaborated with brands such as San Miguel and Royal Caribbean Cruises, as well as more recently Samsung. We considered that Mia Mon’s commercial partnerships were with adult-focused brands which were unlikely to have been popular with under-18s.
CAP Guidance classed anyone with a significant under-18 following on social media as high risk of being of strong appeal to under-18s. It stated that one rule of thumb was that at least a total of 100,000 social-media follower accounts registered to people under-18, across social media platforms, was indicative of strong appeal.
Mia Mon had a profile on Twitch which was currently inactive but had previously livestreamed on the site including showing her playing video games. We understood that her last livestream occurred in November 2024, over 12 months before the ad was seen. We also understood, from the schedule provided by Midnite, that nearly half of her livestreams for the period March 2022 to November 2024 only featured Ms Mon talking and not engaging in gameplay. We considered that such conversation-based content was less likely to be appealing to under-18s compared to gameplay. We understood that she had 54,400 followers on Twitch but that it was not possible to obtain a breakdown of age demographics of her followers. However, the data provided by Midnite showed that of the users who had viewed her profile in the last 28 days, approximately 8% were registered as being under-18. Given that her total number of followers was 54,400, we considered it was reasonable to assume, based on the available data on viewing percentages, that approximately 4,400 (8%) were aged under 18.
We understood from the information provided by Midnite that Mia Mon was only active on TikTok and Instagram and that she had 409,100 followers on TikTok and 193,000 followers on Instagram. The breakdown provided by Midnite showed that 9.6% of her TikTok followers were registered as being under the age of 18 (39,274 followers) and 9% of her Instagram followers (17,370 followers). Her total under-18 followers across both platforms was therefore 56,644, which was significantly below the 100,000 rule of thumb figure for indicating strong appeal. While her Twitch profile was inactive and she had not live streamed in over 12 months, the data provided by Midnite indicated that the number of registered under-18 users who had recently viewed her profile was approximately 4,400 and when added to the figure for her active accounts, the total figure was approximately 61,000, which was still significantly below the 100,000 rule of thumb figure for indicating strong appeal. We therefore considered that Mia Mon’s social media profile was unlikely to indicate that she was of strong appeal to under-18s.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ad was not of strong appeal to people aged under 18.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.1, 16.3 and 16.3.12 (Gambling) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
