Emoji and privacy

Whenever I see fellow mothers shielding their children's faces on social media, I feel a little pang. Maybe I should do that too, I think then. In my head it's a kind of badge of honour for careful parenting; I sometimes share too easily.

This morning I read two posts that made that pang considerably bigger. From splinter to plank-sized, you might say (not in my eye, but still).

The first post came from a police employee, and was specifically about those stickers over our children's little faces. She wrote that in a world of AI, those emojis only create a false sense of safety. AI can create something that looks enough to be misused, especially if images have already been shared before. So even that extra care is no longer sufficient in this day and age...

Then I read a post about Grok, the AI of X. French authorities have reported that system because it made sexual deepfakes, among others of minors. Ordinary photos were turned into something explicit.

For myself, what I take from this mainly is that the distance between (careful and) innocent sharing and serious abuse has become smaller, and that I should take that little pang inside a bit more seriously.

PS I slipped yesterday and landed in a thorn bush. I'm typing this post with three remaining splinters in my fingertips. So I know what I'm talking about. 😏