‘When we share things about our children online without involving them in that decision making process, we’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to teach our children and model for our children the idea of consent.’ – Stacey Steinberg
At the beginning of the school term, it is common practice to share adorable photos of our children, smartly dressed, ‘confidently’ walking into the school compound on our different social media handles. A doting parent’s expression of love and big dreams for their child is evident in the captions that follow the shared images.
An innocent and seemingly harmless act in this day and age of significant advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, could very easily turn into a nightmare for your child (adult) in the near future.
Technology has extended its reach to previously unfathomable spheres of our lives like personal relationships – social media and video conferencing have changed the way we relate with each other, intimate spaces – smart home devices, voice assistants, and wearable technology have invaded our private spaces making our homes, bedrooms, and even bodies trackable.
It has invaded our financial transactions – Cryptocurrencies, mobile payments, and digital wallets have transformed the way we think about money.
Our thoughts and emotions, – AI powered mental health chatbots, social media archives have changed the way we store, recall and share our memories. And, mental and physical abilities – prosthetics and cognitive enhancements have pushed the boundaries of human capabilities.
Deepfakes – videos and audio clips made with AI to look real, have evolved to such a high level that created digital, older versions of our children, using just a couple of their pictures shared on social media, can very easily pass for the authentic.
The lovely pictures that you shared, can be taken and used by anybody/everybody. For the doting parent, these are just memories, but for others, it is data, and for the innocent child, maybe the beginning of an abused future.
One immediate danger of parents’ sharing their children’s lives online is the potential for real-world harm. This can include attracting individuals with malicious intentions, such as those who might seek to exploit or harm children, based on content that they have seen online.
The data collected could be used to develop a portfolio based on all the information freely available online, and this very information used to steal their identity.
In Uganda, we might not be there yet, but with progressive record digitalization – from birth certificates to national identification numbers and passports, it is only a matter of time before we get there.
In the United States, Turhan Lemont Armstrong’s arrest in 2017 on charges of child identity theft left many stunned. Armstrong used many fake identities, mainly children’s, to access loans and credit cards, with which he bought numerous properties and expensive cars.
For years he ran a $3.3 million fraud, and was able to elude arrest for long, because he targeted children who had travelled or temporally relocated from the US. Such individuals were less likely to track their credit.
Their photos and personal information such as name, age, sex, race, and location should not be shared online. This data could very well boomerang on the parents, with the child’s voice copied to scam you.
Imagine getting a call and listening to an all-to-familiar voice, your child’s crying earnestly,
“I’m in trouble, I’ve been kidnapped… I need you to send me money before I’m released…”
Only to realize later, after sending the ransom, that the audio is a fake, the voice was gleaned from the various videos that you shared on social media, and you have been conned.
The manipulation of child images and posts, that you could have innocently shared online, is a disturbing issue as it can lead to two disturbing possibilities; either their photos are exploited for illicit purposes, causing harm, or they are used to create viral memes that portray them in negative light, potentially damaging their reputation and wellbeing.
What you share online is like a digital footprint that will follow them around for the rest of their life. So, for the love of them, protect their virtual privacy.
By Alfred Galandi
