Posting kids online is risky. Here’s how to remove their images.

Posting kids online is risky. Here’s how to remove their images.

Parents' desire to share their children with the world is understandable. Their carefree grins, happy moments, and accomplishments seem like innocent occasions to rejoice about.

The majority of individuals are also aware enough not to share too many pictures of toddlers, tweens, or teenagers online.

We are all too aware of the dangers associated with uploading images and videos of children to websites or social media platforms, where they might be abused by strangers or used for bullying. Artificial intelligence technologies pose a growing danger due to their rapid advancements. To create "deep fakes," they might be given actual photographs and images.

It has already taken place. Allegedly, this summer, high school students in New Jersey employed artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to create sexualized representations of their peers using "original photos." It is reported that an Issaquah, Washington, high school student created sexualized pictures of actual classmates using genuine photographs, which were subsequently circulated. Parents of around 20 girls in Spain between the ages of 11 and 17 claim that their children's pictures were edited using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to produce pornographic imagery.

According to Wael Abd-Almageed, distinguished senior scientist and research director at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, AI technologies "need as little as one picture now." "You can train artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize facial features, so if the AI can recognize a child's features, you can replace them in a video."

 How much can you remove?

There isn't a magic eraser button that can remove every online photo or video that features someone. It's simpler if you already know what has to be removed. But it will take a lot of effort, if not impossible, to trace down everything if the youngster in question has had their likeness extensively circulated.

"Whatever is posted online remains posted online. It will always exist, according to Abd-Almageed.

He stated that movies and images may be preserved and shared in encrypted conversations or on the dark web, or they could be shared and reshared, backed up, and archived by businesses. It's not really possible to remove a picture of a youngster from the internet, not even by eliminating it from Google search results. It will remain accessible on the website that formerly hosted it.

 Keeping every piece of information about a kid off the internet is also a major commitment that could be unachievable for most families, whether it's clearing up the past or managing the future.

Author of "Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World," Devorah Heitner, said that "most of us might not be able to live with this level of vigilance at this point." Rather, she advises planning beforehand and letting your kids decide where and when their picture appears online.

Google Drive, Photos, and Search: Using this form, a child, their guardian, or an authorized representative such as a lawyer may request that content—a picture, video, or text—be removed from Google Search results. There are a few restrictions. It only eliminates information from Google search results; the actual website will still host them. If the material is on your own social media profile, Google won't remove it. However, if the photographs are in the public interest, such as when a young person is a well-known personality or the photo is from a noteworthy occasion, Google may reject requests. Usually, the procedure takes several days. You may file a report for the picture on Google Drive and Photos here and here, respectively. Use this tool if the picture has been deleted but is still appearing in search results.

 What’s the process for Google, TikTok, and Facebook?

The majority of large IT firms include a mechanism for requesting the removal of photographs. We've included the essentials for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Google. Not every picture can be deleted, and there are always exceptions. When your kids become bigger, you may also find that they want to disclose more about themselves than you feel comfortable with. This is because most sites allow kids to make their own profiles as long as they are 13 years old or older.

YouTube: A request to have a video of a minor taken down from YouTube may be filled either by the minor or by their agent here. YouTube is including AI-generated content in its regulations, making it easier for you to ask for their removal as well.

Facebook and Instagram: Only parents may request the removal of material intended for children under the age of 13 from these social media platforms. A youngster must make their own request if they are between the ages of 13 and 17. Here are links to the Instagram and Facebook forms, respectively.

TikTok: The individual shown in the video or their legal representative must complete this privacy form in order to request that TikTok erase the video of them. Choose "Report a privacy violation" from the menu that descends. Although it is not always against the firm's community rules to post a youngster without their consent, the company says it should delete them if it receives a report about it.

 How do you find the images you want to remove?

Start by searching for them by name on Google, then go through your family's, your own, and their past school and club profiles on social media. Consider using a reverse image search if you're trying to find duplicates of a certain picture. To search by picture, go to images.google.com and click the camera symbol.

With only one photo of a person, a number of contentious face-detection businesses, including as Clearview AI and PimEyes, can locate matches online. Regretfully, anyone attempting to maintain control over their personal privacy will not find them helpful. The public may use PimEyes, but it has said that it would stop including faces that its AI algorithms have identified as belonging to children. According to Clearview AI, organizations like law enforcement should use its database, not private citizens.

 Few laws, if any, prohibit businesses from trawling the internet for photos. Still, you may utilize state privacy rules in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia to get a list of photographs from these sites. To begin with, send in a request to see your or your child's data using these links: PimEyes and Clearview. All of the photos it located, along with the websites hosting them, ought should be shown in a file that you get back. After that, you may go straight to that website and ask them to take down the pictures. Once you're done, submit another request, but this time, all of your data will be deleted.

 What can you do going forward?

Establishing guidelines for future sharing is less difficult than clearing the past. The grownups in their immediate vicinity will bear this duty for smaller kids.

Share only private photos and videos of your kids. Group conversations that are encrypted, like Signal or Apple's iMessage, are the safest option. You may utilize "disappearing" alternatives like Instagram Stories or share family images with their faces pixelated if you want social media's larger audience. Tell your parents and other family members about your choices. For example, tell Grandpa that you don't want him to post pictures of your babies on Facebook.

With high schools at the center of these early AI scandals, consider where students find photos of each other. As children join different programs, schools, and activities, guardians will be given photo release forms to sign. You can opt out of all of these if you want, or just the ones that want to use images publicly versus in closed groups.

You'll probably have to give the kids more autonomy over some of these choices as they get to the tween and teen years. Give them all the knowledge and assistance they'll want to make wise choices in the event that they decide to launch a YouTube channel or perhaps merely desire to show up in friends' Instagram photos.

Heitner said, "I feel like we're all online at this point." As it is crucial that they can trust us to respect their privacy, "giving kids the power and control over when they post about themselves gives them autonomy over their reputation." There may be a variety of reasons why they don't want us to share certain things about them.