A woman who has worked in child exploitation research has warned parents against posting photos of their children on the internet.
Alex Hoffman said that by sharing images of children, parents can invite “digital kidnappers” to social media pages – even if an account is private.
“Digital kidnapping is when someone steals your minor’s photos from the internet, usually a social media platform, and impersonates the child or poses as the child’s parents,” she explained.
The 24-year-old law student from California claimed that innocent snaps of children could be inappropriately altered and altered using AI technology.
She said the only way to completely prevent a child’s image from ending up in the hands of a digital kidnapper is to not post them at all and to be very wary of who follows your pages, even on a private profile.
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A woman who had a job investigating online child crimes has revealed why parents should never post pictures of their kids on social media — and why you should be wary even on private accounts
Alex said these online predators will take a photo of a minor they found on the internet and “change them to look explicit or to show that the child is doing something inappropriate.”
“Digital kidnappers can also take pictures of a child and use AI material to make an inappropriate video of it,” she explained in a TikTok video.
“If these photos or videos are posted on the dark web, they can often lead to more serious crimes such as identity theft or real kidnappings.”
Alex said many digital kidnappers are female and use specific hashtags in their stolen photos and videos to promote what they are doing to their intended audience.
The only way to completely eliminate the risk of these lurkers finding, modifying, and posting your child’s photos on the dark web is to never share images of minors online.
“If you post a picture of your child, make sure you have a private account,” she advised with a caveat.
“Really keep an eye on your followers and make sure any photos of your child are appropriate and don’t stand a chance of being taken in an explicit way.”
Alex’s “scary” warning raised concern among parents who watched the clip, but many were grateful for the good advice.
‘Keep spreading the word! Well done,’ said a woman.
“Someone profiled my 14-year-old on Instagram. I reported it and it still hasn’t been removed,” said one mother.
“I just deleted all my videos with my face, now I’m scared,” wrote another.
‘You provide really new and informative information. Good job. Just say it,” added a fourth.
Earlier, Alex explained another horrifying reason why you shouldn’t post pictures of your kids on social media.
Earlier, Alex explained another horrifying reason why you shouldn’t post pictures of your kids on social media
“Most of the photos uploaded to the dark web of kids are from normal people’s Facebook and Instagram pages,” she said.
“If you see a suggested person on your Facebook page that you don’t have mutual friends with, it means they’ve searched your profile at least three times.”
Alex explained that ‘the dark web is not a mysterious and exclusive place’, saying ‘you just need to download a browser’ to access hidden internet sites.
“Child exploitation is a multi-billion dollar industry and thousands of websites are created every day to share photos and videos,” she said.
“My advice to parents would be to really limit your child to social media, because photos and videos can very easily be distorted and posted on the dark web.”
Alex’s eye-opening video has been viewed more than 7.9 million times and received thousands of comments within one day.
“Most of the photos uploaded to the dark web of kids are from normal people’s Facebook and Instagram pages,” she said.
The aspiring lawyer filmed a series of follow-up clips further explaining why it’s best to keep your kids off social media.
“A lot of pictures of kids that get posted on the dark web aren’t explicit,” she noted, saying she saw a lot of pictures of kids in gymnastics and dance costumes.
‘These parents often had no idea that their child was on the dark web. In addition, ordinary photos of children can be distorted into images that are explicit, even though no explicit photo was ever taken,” she added.
Finally, and probably most disturbing, there will be kids going viral on the dark web, and there’s no reason for that. It just happens, and there will be pages and websites and forums just devoted to sending pictures of this kid.”
Many commenters wanted to know if they can safely post pictures of their children if their profile is set to private.
“It depends,” she replied. “I think when you’re private it greatly reduces the likelihood that predators are likely to see your child’s photo.” However, I strongly believe that it is based on the content of the photo.’
Alex explained that problems arise when a photo has “erotic potential” that a parent may not recognize.
“By erotic potential I mean a picture of your child eating, a picture of your child in a diaper, a picture of your child in distress, a picture of your child in a bathing suit,” she explained. “These are the kind of photos that can pull a predator out of context.
They can add whatever they want. They can add a person to the photo. They can subtract things from the picture. They can make things that weren’t really there in the picture. We are all adults. We know what’s suggestive and we know what’s not.
“But you also have to be a little careful and read between the lines and see what can potentially be taken out of context and what can potentially be photographed if you choose to put your child on the internet,” she concluded .
Admittedly, many commentators were shocked by Alex’s warning.
‘Wait what?! Do they edit these photos before posting them on the dark web? Frankly, that’s scary. I had no idea,” one wrote.
“It’s extremely disturbing to me how many parents in all these comments didn’t know this is happening and how common it is,” added another.
“Ever since I had my kids, people ask me why I don’t share more pictures of them. This is exactly why!’ someone else noticed. “But some people just don’t get it.”