Deepfakes are content, such as images, videos, or audio, created or manipulated using AI to look or sound like real people or scenes. They can feature celebrities, politicians, or even kids’ real-life peers. Some deepfakes are made for fun or creative purposes, but others are made to mislead, trick, or harm.
Research shows that both children and adults have trouble telling whether what they see is real or AI-generated. As AI tools become more advanced and deepfakes look more realistic, it is important to help children and teens develop skills to protect themselves from potential harms.
How Might Kids be Affected by Deep Fakes?
Children and teens can stumble on deepfakes on social media, video-sharing platforms, messaging apps, or in other online spaces. Because deepfakes can look and sound real, young people may believe them. AI tools are also becoming easier to use, allowing children and teens to create deep fakes themselves.
This matters for several reasons:
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- Misinformation: Kids may believe false portrayals of people, events, or news. This can affect their opinions, beliefs, and decisions both online and in real life.
- Erosion of Trust: Seeing manipulated or fake media often can make kids doubt the source of everything they see online, whether it’s AI-generated or from a real human.
- Social and emotional impact: Deepfakes involving a child can be embarrassing or upsetting. Some deepfakes are used for cyberbullying or to create non-consensual images of minors, which can cause serious emotional harm.
- Ethical and Legal Consequences: Kids who create deepfakes might not understand the serious ethical or legal consequences for themselves or for the people in the deep fakes.
What Actions Can Parents, Caregivers, and Teens Take?
Parents, caregivers, and teens can work together to navigate a world where not everything online is real. Talking openly about AI-generated content and helping build media literacy is key. Being transparent about the use of AI and leading with kindness when creating materials online is an important step to minimizing harm for all users.
Parents and teens can discuss questions like:
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- Who created this content?
- Is this a trustworthy or credible source?
- Can I find other reliable sources that confirm or challenge what I’m seeing?
- When I create AI-generated images, how can I be sure they will do no harm to others?
Regular conversations, along with modeling critical thinking and open-mindedness, can help kids become careful and thoughtful consumers and creators of digital media.
I think that we are doing students a disservice if we give them a belief that they’re going to identify most deep fakes. The technology is improving so quickly that students could be led astray. […] In general, like the best approach is to say: If I’m not sure if this thing is real, I should go somewhere else, and try to get a sense of other information about it.
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