A 27-year-old grad student was just caught using pics of real kids on the internet to make AI child porn for pedophiles. Even more disgusting? He worked by request. This story made my skin crawl, and it brings me to a question I’ve been getting more and more often:
“Kim, I don’t want pictures of my kids on social media. How do I tell friends and family not to post them without sounding preachy?”
Your kids, your rules
You’re totally justified in wanting your kids’ faces off the web. It’s a fact creeps scan public accounts looking for kids to prey on. It’s also easier than ever for pedophiles to pose as a kid and groom your child on Snapchat, Roblox — you name it.
There’s also this: Posting your kids to Facebook or Instagram basically gives Meta the thumbs-up for using those images to train their AI models. The law is way behind here. As a parent, it’s up to you to protect your kids.
Keep things drama-free
Save yourself an awkward situation by telling people before a big get-together. Most folks mean well, but they might not know the risks of sharing kids’ photos online, especially if they’re not parents themselves.
- It’s about you, not them. This is for your kids. Use “I” and “we” statements, and don’t tell anyone else how to parent.
- Share your reasoning. Or just send them a link to this story!
- Be clear and firm. Don’t leave any wiggle room on public posting.
- Do it one-on-one. If you have the convo over email or text, do it privately, not in a group message.
I wrote up an example you can copy:
“Hey, I wanted to let you know ahead of time we’d like to keep photos of the kids off the internet for privacy and safety reasons. (We saw some stories that really spooked us!) If you could avoid putting pics of them on social media, we’d really appreciate it!”
If it’s already posted …
Don’t panic. Reach out ASAP and ask them to remove it with a link to the specific post. I’d go with a text; a comment on a public post feels like you’re calling them out.
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