Terrifying Ad Warns Parents Against Sharing Photos of Their Kids Online
A terrifying new ad campaign featuring a deepfaked girl is warning parents against sharing photos and videos of their kids on social media.
The shocking advertising campaign, created by telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, has gone viral for its dark warning of the potentially devastating consequences of parents posting photos of their children online.
The haunting video — which has amassed over 5.5 million views on social media in the last day — reveals how just how easily a child’s image can be manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The ad delves into the story of nine-year-old Ella. Like many parents today, Ella’s mother and father regularly post videos and photos of their young daughter on social media.
However, Ella’s parents have never considered how their daughter’s future could be destroyed by “sharenting” — the common practice of parents sharing photos or videos of their children online.
‘The Beginning of a Horrible Future’
In the ad, a deepfake version of an adult Ella is created with the help of AI — using just a single photo of the nine-year-old girl that her parents shared online.
The “older” deepfaked Ella can move and talk like a real person. And she confronts her horrified parents on the big screen as they watch a movie at the cinema.
The deepfaked version of their daughter reveals the terrifying repercussions that followed after her parents posted her photos and videos on social media.
The ad chillingly explains how children whose images are posted online could fall victim to identity abuse, deepfaked scams, and child pornography among other crimes.
The Average Five-Year-Old Has 1,5000 Photos Online
Adweek reports that some studies have estimated that by 2030, nearly two-thirds of identity fraud cases affecting a young generation will have resulted from “sharenting.”
Research also shows that an average five-year-old child has already had about 1,500 pictures uploaded online without their consent by their parents.
Last week, PetaPixel reported on how Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg caused a stir across social media when he posted a family portrait on Instagram that obscured the faces of his two older children with emojis. Meanwhile, his infant’s face was not covered in the photograph.
It revealed Zuckerberg’s awareness that his elder children’s faces are developed enough to become recognizable by strangers online and by facial recognition software.
