Terms & Conditions

Star Tots ("Star Tots", "we", "us") operates the monthly online baby photo competition at startots.co.za. You can reach us at info@startots.co.za. By entering, voting, buying votes or otherwise using the site, you agree to these terms, our competition rules and our privacy policy.

Entries may be submitted only by the parent or legal guardian of the child, who must be 18 or older. The child must be between 0 and 3 years old at the date of entry. One entry per child per monthly competition. We may verify age and guardianship and may reject or remove any entry.

By uploading a photograph you confirm that you own it or have permission to use it, that you are the child's parent or guardian, and that you consent to it being displayed publicly on Star Tots and used by us to promote the competition (website, social media and advertising). You keep ownership of your photograph; you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display and promote it while you take part and afterwards in our winners archive.

You may ask us to remove your entry and photograph at any time by emailing info@startots.co.za. Removal ends participation in the competition for that month and does not entitle you or your voters to a refund.

While the platform is new, some content on the site — including certain gallery entries and the past winners archive — is illustrative demonstration content created with AI-generated images of children who do not exist. It is labelled as such on the relevant pages. It does not represent real entrants, real results or payments already made. Real results and real donations will replace it as each monthly competition completes.

Registered users get 10 free votes per entry per 24 hours. Additional votes may be purchased in vote packs or cast by premium SMS. Votes are a paid form of support for an entry — they are not a wager, a game of chance or an investment, and they carry no cash value.

We use fraud controls including rate limiting and device and network fingerprints. We may cancel votes we reasonably believe were obtained through automation, bulk fake accounts, payment fraud or any manipulation, and we may disqualify an entry that benefited from them, without refund.

Card payments are processed by Yoco; EFT payments are verified manually against proof of payment; premium SMS votes are billed by your mobile network at the rate advertised for that shortcode. All prices are in South African Rand and include VAT where applicable.

Purchased votes and entry fees are non-refundable once the votes have been applied, except where a refund is required by law or where a technical failure on our side prevented the votes from being cast. If you are charged in error, contact us within 30 days and we will investigate and refund a genuine error.

The advertised monthly prize pool is split between the top three entries as published on our prizes page. Voting closes at 23:59 SAST on the last day of the month; winners are announced approximately one week later after verification, and prizes are paid by EFT to the winning parent or guardian within 14 days of the announcement.

Winners must provide proof of identity and guardianship and valid bank details before payment. Prizes are not transferable and cannot be exchanged for anything other than the advertised amount. Where a prize is unclaimed or the winner is disqualified, we may award it to the next-placed eligible entry. Any tax on a prize is the winner's responsibility.

We pledge to match the total cash paid to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in a month, rand for rand, as a donation to a registered South African charity nominated by the parents of the #1 entry, in line with our competition rules.

If a nominated organisation cannot be verified as a registered charity or NPO, we will select a registered South African children's charity instead. Star Tots is not a public benefit organisation and payments you make to us are not tax-deductible donations. Donations are published on our charity page once paid.

You may not upload unlawful, indecent or misleading content, impersonate another person, harass entrants, scrape or copy photographs from the site, or use bots or scripts against the service. Photographs on this site are watermarked and protected; downloading or reusing another entrant's photograph is prohibited. We may suspend or terminate any account that breaches these terms.

We process personal information in line with POPIA and our privacy policy. Because entries involve children, we only accept information submitted by a parent or guardian, and we publish only the child's first name, age category and photograph.

We may amend these terms, the prize structure or a monthly competition, and may suspend or cancel a competition, where necessary because of fraud, technical failure, insufficient entries or events beyond our control. Material changes will be posted on this page.

The site is provided "as is". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act that cannot lawfully be limited.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction. Please contact us at info@startots.co.za first — we would rather resolve a complaint directly. Our decision on competition results is final, subject to your legal rights.