Parents warned against uploading children's photos to AI tools

Summarised from BBC Bristol's report · Updated 17 Oct, 19:44 · Archive

Experts urge parents to check how AI platforms handle children's photos before uploading them.

Experts are urging parents to think carefully before uploading photographs of their children to artificial intelligence tools. Some parents have been using AI platforms to remove watermarks from school photos to avoid paying for them, prompting the warning.

George Martin, security and data protection adviser at South West Grid for Learning, said parents should understand what happens to images once uploaded and check whether photos may be used to train AI models. He said parents have limited visibility over what happens to images after uploading and cautioned that a child's school photograph could potentially be used to train an AI model.

Most AI platforms allow users to change settings to prevent uploaded content being used for training, although these options vary between services. Martin advised parents to check these settings, as most AI platforms default to allowing such use if they can.

Read the report

• The AI photo shortcut experts say parents should avoidExperts warn photos uploaded to AI may be stored, reused or expose children's data.BBC Bristol · 17 Oct, 07:28

In this story: South West Grid for Learning · George Martin

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