You can not always be present to keep your child’s face from being uploaded and turned into a deepfake, especially when it comes to classmates or friends. But you can set boundaries and provide the right knowledge ahead of time to meaningfully protect your children.
1. Talk first to create a safe environment.
A child who has never heard of the word ‘deepfake’ may meet one in shame and silence. Make it unmistakable that your reaction will always be calm. A child needs to know that they will never be in trouble for telling you about a deepfake, no matter how embarrassing.
Have ongoing conversations about AI usage and deepfakes, and ask your child how they would feel if someone created fake, embarrassing images about them. This can prevent your child from making deepfakes of other children.
Explain that these types of deepfakes can be both illegal and humiliating for other students. Encourage your child to let you know if they stumble across deepfakes of their friends or if they see other children sharing deepfakes.
2. Shrink the raw material.
Think twice before posting clear, front-facing photos of your child publicly. Cover their face with an emoji in images shared online to protect your child’s biometric data from identity theft. Remove identifying details on your children’s clothing, such as a school logo.
Do not be afraid to have a gentle conversation with other parents or adults regarding your child’s needs. For example, a parent could explain in advance: “We genuinely value our kids’ privacy, and we always ask to cover their faces with an emoji if a group photo is posted anywhere online. This keeps our kids safer, and we greatly appreciate it.”
Keep background locations non-specific in any photos. Be careful to remove GPS data from images shared on any blog or platform that does not automatically filter it out.
You can also turn off location on your social media accounts, or set them to private. Limit who can see, download, and share from your social media account.
3. Teach them the basics of digital literacy.
Teach children to think critically about the content they consume. Try a short game or challenge where you find AI images (without creating them) and teach them to identify the ‘fakes’ from the ‘real’ images.
A few examples:
- Over-rendering. (Does the image appear ‘too’ perfect? Is it overly glossy or are the textures too smooth?)
- Inconsistency. (If this is a video, do objects shift, or fade in and out of the background?)
- Defying the laws of physics. (Do objects move in ways they wouldn’t in real life?)
- Reflections and shadows. (Do these align with the rest of the scene and make sense?)
- Eye and mouth movements. (Is the person blinking too fast or too slow? Do their lips align with the words being spoken?)
- Blurriness or melding where two objects converge. (Does the edge of a sleeve merge with the rest of the sweater?)
- Incomprehensible text. (Is there text in the background that does not spell out any words?)
As AI technology advances, you can incorporate learning about these advancements over time.
Digital literacy is protective. In a survey from the nonprofit Thorn, 1 in 10 children said they knew of peers who had used AI to make deepfake nudes of other kids. These “nudify” apps are purposefully built so that anyone, with minimal skill, can turn an ordinary photo into a deepfake. The only material required is a child’s face.
Teach that consent and bodily autonomy include a person’s image, even a synthetic one, and that “nudifying” someone’s photo is not a joke but a serious harm.
We protect children best not by walling off the digital world, but by giving them the words to name their rights and the confidence to claim them.
Bisma Shoaib.
Note: This is preventative advice. If you have already found a deepfake made of your child, screenshot the image for evidence or record screen videos, and document URLs and timestamps for legal purposes. Use reverse-image and facial search engines to check if the material has been shared elsewhere. If the image contains explicit material, report it to the NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cyber Tipline) or call 1–800-THE-LOST, and contact your local law enforcement. Reach out to a pediatrician or mental health professional if you notice any change in your child’s well-being.
Bisma Shoaib is a lawyer, scholar, advocate, and mother of two beloved children, with a passion for antitrust law. She loves authoring imaginative stories and curriculum resources that teach children to develop their own agency in a world of advancing AI and online algorithms.