Deepfaked Child Returns From Future To Warn About Sharing Personal Data In PSA

While most users on social media don’t give a second thought to posting personal information, images, or videos online, there are hidden risks to giving out one’s data so easily. To raise awareness of the risks, Deutsche Telekom has partnered with creative agency adam&eveBERLIN to educate parents on how these uploads could lead to identity abuse.

Dubbed #ShareWithCare, the campaign uses a deepfake of a girl named ‘Ella’ to show the consequences a child may face due to their photographs being shared on the internet, spotlighting the trend of “sharenting”—or when parents share too much of their kids’ lives online.

In the spot, protagonist Ella sends a warning from the future to her parents about the dangers of having her images and videos used to create a virtually-aged deepfake, in which the nine-year-old girl is made to look and act like an adult woman.

Shockingly, according to the company, which quoted The New Yorker, experts have predicted that by the end of the decade, two-thirds of identity theft cases will occur through data carelessly shared online, with parents unintentionally exposing their children to data brokers, hackers, and other bad actors.

“Every person, including a child, has the right to make their own decisions about their digital identity. But studies show that by the age of five, the average child has 1,500 pictures of themselves online—uploaded without their consent, by those they trust most: their parents,” the firm said.

[via LBB Online and Ads of Brands, images via Deutsche Telekom]