Before our daughter was born, both my husband and I were on the same page about posting her face on social media: we weren’t going to do it.
Our reason had mostly to do with the number of child predators that specifically hunt for family accounts.
Within just a year, the strides that AI has taken has made us even more confident in our decision.
Videos exposing the darker capabilities of AI technology are expoding.
One Utah mother, Kalie Robins, is going viral for a startling reason. What was meant to be an innocent post of her in her car with her two daughters singing, quickly turned into a nightmare.
Meta’s AI system made a startling suggestion to viewers: that they investigate the identity of the child in the backseat.
To be clear, Robins has never publicized the names of her children. But to her horror, Meta’s AI technology was able to piece together multiple photos from her account, deleted photos, and information from family members’ accounts to correctly name her daughter.
But AI did not stop there. It continued the prompts all the way from “what are Kalie’s daughter’s ages?” all the way to suggesting a prompt to find out where Kalie Robins and her family lives. Which it got correct.
For years, technology analysts have warned parents about the dangers of posting their children’s private information on social media (specifically their faces).
Now, with the age of AI, the need for protecting children’s privacy on social media is even more important.
In August of this year, CBS news reported,
“A sweet back-to-school photo can be more vulnerable to manipulation in the age of artificial intelligence, with bad actors getting their hands on AI-enabled apps that let them take an innocent photo and sexualize it — all that’s required is a photo of someone even fully clothed.
So-called “nudify apps” use AI-generated software to turn photographs of people wearing clothing into naked or pornographic images with just a few swipes on a screen. Artificial intelligence has enabled the rapid rise of such tools, capable of digitally manipulating photos with little effort.
Roughly half of U.S. teens say they’ve seen AI-generated pornography, according to Common Sense Media, an advocacy group focused on kids’ online safety. Of those who have seen AI porn, one in four says it featured themselves or someone they know.”
Parents, be aware of the content you post on your social media pages.
Even an innocent photo can be used by the wrong people for sinister purposes. In my view, the safest choice is to avoid posting these images at all.
