As technology continues to advance, the digital landscape in which our children and teens grow up becomes increasingly complex. One of the latest challenges is the rise of AI-generated deepfakes. These hyper-realistic but fake videos and images are created using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and they can have serious implications for online safety and wellbeing. Here’s what parents need to know about deepfakes and how they can help to protect and support the young people in their lives.
What is Generative AI?
GenAI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content. This could be writing text, creating images, composing music, or even producing entire videos. It works using two main components: large language models (LLMs) and data sets. When you give a command to Generative AI, it responds based on the data from which is has learned. However, this can sometimes lead to incorrect or biased information.
- Large Language Models (LLMs) are like very smart digital brains trained to understand and create human language. Think of it as teaching a child by letting them read millions of books. These models learn patterns, context, and structure from the vast amounts of text data they read.
- Data Sets are like the textbooks for these digital brains. They contain the examples and information the AI learns from. The more extensive and varied the data set, the better the AI can understand and create new content. Imagine a data set as a giant recipe book – the more recipes (data) it has, the better the AI can cook up new content. Some LLMs have been build on data from the entirety of the public internet.
What are Deepfakes?
Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness using Generative AI. This technology can create highly realistic but entirely fabricated content, making it difficult to distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake. Deepfakes can be used in malicious ways including a tool to spread misinformation, scams and identity theft, cyberbullying, image-based abuse, and the generation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
A Disturbing Trend has Emerged
As technologies have advanced, we are now faced with the daunting reality of the misuse of GenAI. It’s estimated that approximately 90% of all deepfake content is explicit. It’s a disconcerting thought that any image we have published online could be used to degrade, humiliate, and dehumanise victims. Yet, a quick Google search of the word ‘nudify’ exposes an abhorrent list of freely accessible and easy-to-use apps designed to ‘digitally undress’ a victim. Such acts are overwhelmingly targeted towards women and girls, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes and contributing to gender-based violence and sexual abuse.
Supporting Your Child to be Safe and Responsible with AI
When discussing AI and deepfakes with your children, it’s important to approach the conversation with curiosity, not fear. Understanding the technology and its implications can help demystify it and make your children more aware of the digital landscape they navigate daily.
1. Foster Social Capabilities and Instil Values in Your Children
There is a disproportionate volume of AI-generated abuse material targeting women, girls and children. Shockingly, 99% of this imagery is of women and girls. This is a profound societal concern, and it underscores the urgent need for fostering a culture of responsibility, integrity, strength and empathy (particularly for our boys and men) to combat these harmful trends and protect all members of our community.
Discuss with your children what it means to be respectful digital citizens. This includes demonstrating:
- Responsibility: Protecting yourself, friends, and family online.
- Integrity: Demonstrating acceptable social behaviours and ethics online.
- Strength: Resisting peer pressure to engage in harmful digital behaviour.
- Empathy: Understanding and respecting the feelings and rights of others.
2. Empower Young People to Take Control
- Be Aware of the Law: In Australia, a Criminal Code Amendment Bill has been proposed that would strengthen criminal laws to combat sexually explicit deepfakes. This would incorporate, “Serious criminal penalties of up to 6 years imprisonment for sharing of non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material.”
- Tighten Your Privacy Settings: Review and adjust privacy settings on social media and other platforms. Restrict who can see your photos and videos, especially people you don’t know well.
- Be Mindful of What You Share Online: Limit the amount of high-quality photos and videos of yourself readily available online. Deepfakes require source material, so the less out there, the harder it is to create one.
- Reduce Followers: Encourage young people to only accept friend or follower requests from people they know and trust in real life. This reduces the risk of interacting with potentially harmful individuals.
- Power Up Your Passwords: Use strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication for your online accounts. This makes it harder for someone to hack into your accounts and access your photos/videos.
3. Build a Network that Promotes Help-Seeking
Help young people establish trusted adults to whom they can turn if they encounter something concerning, are threatened online, or become a victim of a deepfake. This can include family members, teachers, or school counsellors. Additionally, teach them how to access help-seeking resources within apps and games, as well as external services such as:
- eSafety Commissioner (esafety.gov.au): Report image-based abuse and cyberbullying.
- Kids Helpline (kidshelpline.com.au): Offers 24/7 online and phone counselling services for young people.
- Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org): Remove or stop the online sharing of nude images or videos.
Additional Resources:
- Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (accce.gov.au): Support with online child exploitation.
- Youth Law Australia (yla.org.au): Free and confidential advice to young people and their advocates.
By fostering open communication, promoting responsible digital behaviour, and providing practical tools for safety and support, we can help our children navigate the digital world with confidence and resilience.
Author: Trent Ray | Lead Educator, Cyber Safety Project
