From the simple holiday picture to the annual first-day-of-school photo, it may seem harmless to share your kids online, to your friends and family. Yet, according to an article from Yahoo Life, these photos or videos of a child’s life may share personal information that can interfere with a child’s digital privacy.
And sadly, these innocent captures can be turned upside down — especially with the use of artificial intelligence.
The dangers of AI and posting kids online
While AI is a revolutionary software, there are people who use it for the worse.
One such story, per The Wall Street Journal, features a New Jersey high school whose male students circulated fake nude photos of their female classmates — photos that were gathered from social media and altered through AI programs.
Wael Abd-Almageed, distinguished principal scientist and research director at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, told The Washington Post that AI has the ability to be trained to pick up the faces of anyone, including children; thus, one picture can be transformed into a potentially harmful video.
What can be done to fix this issue?
Once a child’s photo is on the internet, it stays there. Abd-Almageed told The Washington Post that “images and videos are shared and reshared, backed up and archived by companies, or can be saved and shared in encrypted chats or on the dark web.”
Attempting to delete a child’s data from the internet can become a hassle. But for those who are interested in reporting photos and videos that violate the privacy of a child, multiple social media sites have ways to help report these issues.
For example, if one wanted to report such a photo or video to Facebook, it would depend on the age of the child reporting. If the child is under 13, a parent would need to fill out the request; if a child is between 13-17 years old, the child can request the removal.
As another example, TikTok allows either the child or a guardian to request the removal of content in which the child is depicted.
Questions and ideas for parents to reflect on what’s right
Social media and the inclusion of children has created an unprecedented parenting phenomenon called “sharenting,” where parents openly share news of their kids publicly on social media, according to Psychology Today. Sharenting can become harmful for a child’s self-identity and their perception of trust to the parent.
In addition, the New York Post examined a TikTok video by mom.uncharted, where she poses several questions for parents to ask themselves before they post photos of their child to the internet, including:
- Would you share this information with a stranger?
- If a child’s peers found the post, how may it be used?
- Does this post betray with your child’s trust/privacy?