(Yicai Global) April 12 -- Footage of a Chinese mother kicking her three year-old daughter that made the rounds online has riveted the public's gaze on the country's child model market.

The video,which made it onto the country's Twitter-like Weibo's most-searched list, shows a three-year-old girl being kicked by a woman while two adults take pictures of her. The kid is a model posing for clothing photos for online stores. The kicker is her mother, who wrote on her WeChat social media account "Niuniu [the girl's name] is 93 centimeters tall, weighs 26 kilograms, and has size 24 feet. Bookings for shoots are welcome."

The mother violated China's anti-domestic violence and advertising laws, said Chang Sha, a lawyer with Beijing's King & Capital Law Firm. She believes child models often become a tool for their parents and merchants to make money, and they are the most vulnerable segment of the entire children's wear sector since they cannot make their own choices.

China's kid's wear industry is shooting up and this has fueled demand for juvenile models, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Their work mainly includes parading in garments for online sellers, posing for business promotional shoots and buyers' shows and doing catwalk routines, among which the business shoots can make the most money. Kids must model multiple sets of clothes in a studio according to the requirements of photographers and sellers. They usually get CNY100 (USD14.9) for one item of clothing and shoot from 70 to even 100 sets a day, a child model agency platform said.

"A child model generally makes CNY20,000 to CNY30,000 a month. Popular kids can earn the value of a home in a year," said a woman surnamed Chen, who is the mother of one.

Unlike adults, kids are not always biddable, and shooting is thus naturally more difficult. 

Photographers blame parents and sellers if a shoot is not finished in a day, so some parents strike or scold their children to induce obedience.

Editor: Ben Armour