Key facts
- Parents are increasingly concerned about sharing children's photos online due to AI.
- Meta AI suggested questions about a child's identity on a user's video post.
- Meta acknowledged the AI suggestions were a mistake and have been corrected.
- Some professional photographers are refusing to post children's faces online.
- Concerns include the use of children's photos to train AI models for CSAM.
- A recent court ruling on AI-generated CSAM has amplified these fears.
The long-standing debate among parents about sharing children's photos on social media has taken a significant turn due to emerging concerns about artificial intelligence. Recent incidents, including alarming suggestions from Meta AI and worries about AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), have prompted a reevaluation of online photo sharing practices.
Kalie Robins, a mother from Utah, reported being shocked when Meta AI provided unsettling suggestions on a video she posted featuring her child. The AI chatbot asked questions like "who's the child passenger?" and appeared to pull photos she believed were deleted, along with information about her children from her mother's Facebook page. Meta acknowledged the issue, with spokesperson Andy Stone stating that the AI suggestions were a mistake that has since been fixed. Robins expressed her surprise at the extent of data accessible online, noting that even her careful efforts to protect her children's privacy were circumvented by information shared by others.
Simultaneously, a trend among professional family photographers, many of whom are mothers, has gained traction on Instagram. These photographers are announcing new policies to refrain from sharing children's faces on social media or their professional websites. This decision stems from legitimate fears that photos posted online could be used to create deepfakes of children or be incorporated into datasets for training AI models that generate CSAM. The concern has been amplified by a recent court ruling that, in some interpretations, suggested possession of AI-generated CSAM could be protected as free speech, raising alarms within parenting communities.
Lawyers and photographers emphasize the nuanced nature of AI development, noting that models are trained on vast datasets scraped from the internet. While not all parents have stopped posting photos of their children, these recent AI-related incidents are prompting many to more carefully consider the risks before sharing images online.