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AI deepfakes and teens’ digital footprint: What parents should know
A child’s birthday photo, a cute dance video. When shared online, they become part of a family’s digital footprint. Depending on privacy settings, AI could use them.
Dr. Siwei Lyu, a digital forensics expert and father of two, is a distinguished professor of computer science at the State University of New York who studies how AI learns from public data. The danger of sharing anything online is that it becomes fair game for AI deepfakes: fake photos, videos, or voices built from real images or recordings. Deepfakes can impersonate anyone, including kids and teens.
“A child’s data might be misused to recreate an image or video of them in situations that aren’t real,” Lyu explains. “That content can stay online and affect your child for years.”
Quitting social media isn’t necessarily the answer. Instead, Lyu encourages more intentional sharing: post less, choose private settings, and pause before uploading anything personal. For families looking for practical ways to put those habits into practice, Verizon provides resources including tips on managing privacy settings and talking with kids about what to share.
Here, Lyu explains how digital footprints can be manipulated into AI deepfakes.
How real photos become AI deepfakes
- Step one: The photo goes public. When a photo or video is uploaded, it can become accessible beyond the intended audience. Even private photos could be screenshotted and go public.
- Step two: Manipulation happens. In some cases, an image has to be uploaded into an AI deepfake tool. That’s when it crosses from simple image capture to digital manipulation.
- Step three: It’s shared. Once created, the content can spread fast—shared on social platforms, sent in private chats, which increases the harmful risks.
Steps families can take to manage their digital footprint
- Experts suggest checking app privacy settings regularly. Set accounts to private and limit who can view or download photos.
- Be cautious with “fun” photo apps. Many viral “age me,” “AI art,” or “cartoon me” apps can collect and store uploaded photos. Check the app’s usage terms for any mentions of using images for “research,” “training,” or “improvement,” which may indicate the images could be used for training AI systems.
- Teach kids that there’s really no “delete” once it’s online. Explain that once something is posted online, it can be copied, saved, or reshared—even if the person who posted the original chooses to delete it later.
Helping families build awareness around AI deepfakes
Lyu recommends a few practical safety habits for families:
- Lyu suggests using animated avatars instead of real photos for social profile pics.
- Removing any location data from images before sharing online can also reduce exposure. For example, in your phone’s photo gallery, select a photo, swipe up, and remove the photo’s location data.
- Watermarking real photos and selfies may also make them less appealing to AI crawlers.
This story was produced by Verizon and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
