According to Professor Carsten Maple of the University of Warwick and the Alan Turing Institute, modern AI tools can construct highly realistic digital profiles, including 30-second deepfake videos, from a small number of publicly available photos. These images can be used not only by criminal networks to commit identity theft, open fraudulent accounts, or claim government benefits in a child’s name but also by large tech companies to train their algorithms, often without the user’s full awareness or consent.
New research conducted by Perspectus Global and commissioned by Proton surveyed 2,000 UK parents of children under 16. The findings show that on average, parents upload 63 images to social media every month, with 59% of those being family-related. A significant proportion of parents—21%—share these photos multiple times a week, while 38% post several times a month. These frequent posts not only showcase images but also often contain sensitive data like location tags and key life events, making it easier for bad actors to build a detailed online profile of the child.
Professor Maple warned that such oversharing can lead to long-term consequences.
Aside from potential identity theft, children could face mental distress or reputational harm later in life from having a permanent digital footprint that they never consented to create. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many parents are unaware of how their data is being used. For instance, 48% of survey respondents did not realize that cloud storage providers can access the data stored on their platforms.
In fact, more than half of the surveyed parents (56%) store family images on cloud services such as Google Drive or Apple iCloud. On average, each parent had 185 photos of their children stored digitally—images that may be accessed or analyzed under vaguely worded terms and conditions.
Recent changes to Instagram’s user agreement, which now allows the platform to use uploaded images to train its AI systems, have further heightened privacy concerns. Additionally, experts have warned about the use of personal images by other Big Tech firms to enhance facial recognition algorithms and advertising models.
To protect their children, parents are advised to implement a range of safety measures. These include using secure and private cloud storage, adjusting privacy settings on social platforms, avoiding public Wi-Fi when sharing or uploading data, and staying vigilant against phishing scams.
Furthermore, experts recommend setting boundaries with children regarding online activity, using parental controls, antivirus tools, and search filters, and modeling responsible digital behavior.
The growing accessibility of AI-based image manipulation tools underscores the urgent need for greater awareness and proactive digital hygiene. What may seem like harmless sharing today could expose children to significant risks in the future.
