Why posting photos of children with emoji faces isn't safe anymore

The Star

4 days ago

Even photos where a sticker covers the child's face can be manipulated by AI. — Photo: Zacharie Scheurer/dpa
BERLIN: Once upon a time, it was deemed safe to post a photo of your child on Instagram or Facebook and just insert a cute emoji sticker over their face to protect their identity.
That appears to be changing now: AI tools can now effortlessly remove the sticker and re-insert a child's face for purposes of cyberbullying, blackmail and creating abuse-related content.
Cybersecurity and media literacy experts in several countries are now calling on parents to entirely stop posting photos of their children.
In June, cybersecurity specialist Lisa Ventura, founder of Cyber Security Unity, told The Independent that even if nobody manages to unpeel the emoji sticker off the child's face, the parent is still sharing a large amount of information about the child.
"I need to be brutally honest here: Putting an emoji over a child's face provides virtually no real privacy protection whatsoever," Ventura said.
Age, build, location and even what school they go to can all be deduced from details in a photo, cybersecurity experts say. So-called "sharenting" mothers and fathers are also often sharing multiple images over time. "The combined data from all those posts creates a much bigger privacy concern than any single image," Ventura said.
Anyone who publishes photos or videos of children must understand that this can have long-term, undesirable consequences for the child – because the internet never forgets.
If parents still decide to post photos, media experts recommend considering the following points:
You lose your usage rights: When posting images or videos on social media platforms, parents generally also relinquish the usage rights for these images. Platforms can use the images worldwide for free and, in some cases, pass them on to third parties.
You may unintentionally reveal private information: If children's photos are accompanied by other data such as names, addresses, schools, kindergartens or clubs, strangers can, in theory, locate the child and approach them with personal information.
Snapshots can lead to cyberbullying: Children's photos can easily be used to bully and humiliate them online. Photos or videos can also serve as a means for cyberbullying years later.
Photos can be used in a sexual context: Police say images of children found online are frequently misused for sexualized purposes. Paedocriminals actively search for such images to distribute and sell them in illegal online forums.
Any image can be altered: Even harmless images can be digitally altered. Photos can be quickly edited to ridicule the child or depict them in inappropriate situations, especially by online trolls and cyberbullies. – dpa