Assam Police Uses AI To Alert Parents On Sharing Kids' Photos Online

Millennials and Gen Z parents, what’s the one thing that a lot of us do? Post photos and videos of our children on social media without their consent. Besides, it’s not only about consent, considering that some parents have public social media accounts that are accessible to potential child predators.

The Assam police have recently cautioned parents against being a "sharent." On their Twitter handle, the Assam police department has shared a series of AI-generated images of children to warn parents against sharing too many photos of their children on social media.

Assam Police On Sharing Kids Photos Online

The post read, "Likes fade, but the digital scars remain. Shield your child from the perils of Sharenting. Be mindful of what you share about your child on social media. #DontBeASharent." A lot of netizens commended the Assam police for their eye-opening message and called it the need of the hour.

We find happiness in sharing our children's activities and achievements on social media, but some of us do tend to go a little overboard. We are the generations that grew up with technology, and we know how the double-edged sword can easily turn into a predatory space. Considering that, there’s a compelling need for us to be extremely careful.

A week ago, Deutsche Telekom released a social experiment to raise awareness about the risks of oversharing children’s personal information on social media. The campaign used an older version of a child named "Ella" using deep-fake technology. The video features the older version of the child speaking from the future and sending a warning message to her parents about the dark side of sharing images on social media.

The digital version of the girl explains how, for parents, these are just happy memories, but for others, it is data, and for her, it could potentially be the beginning of a horrible future where her identity is stolen, her voice is copied to scam people, her credit score is destroyed, etc. Further, she says that she doesn’t want to become a meme and certainly doesn’t want objectionable pictures of her circulating online. "What you share online is like a digital footprint that’ll follow me online, so please protect my virtual privacy."

The campaign referred to a study that revealed that children have around 1,500 photos of themselves online by the time they turn five. Experts predict that two-thirds of identity theft will happen as a result of sharing personal information online by the end of the decade. It’s said that 75% of parents share their kids’ photos online, and eight out of ten parents have online friends whom they’ve never met. With that being the case, isn’t it scary how easily we serve our children's personal information on a silver platter to potential predators?

We talk about consent, yet we forget to ask our children’s consent to post their photos on social media. Isn’t that also a violation of their privacy? They might be our children, but they are individuals who have the right to make their own decisions. As they grow older, they might or might not be willing to have a large social media presence, and it’s up to them to make that decision. Right now, as little humans, they are entrusting their privacy to our hands; isn’t it our responsibility to protect it?

Let’s be conscious of the information about our children that we put online and ensure that only trustworthy people get to see it. It’s become the norm for us to share our lives on social media, but there's definitely a need to draw the line. So, it wouldn’t hurt to share with care, would it?

Suggested Reading: Why France Banning Parents From Posting Their Children's Photos Online Is Laudable

Views expressed by the author are their own