I'm A Cyber Security Expert – This Is The 1 Change I Want Parents To Make ASAP

A leading cyber security expert has urged parents to make one major change when it comes to their child’s online safety. Professor Carsten Maple, of the University of Warwick, told HuffPost UK the number one action he hopes parents will take to keep their children safe online is to strongly think about what they’re sharing. “It just takes a few personal details to be leaked or carelessly shared on social media to be exploited by criminals,” he said.“Whether it be photos of important milestones such as birthday parties, your child’s first day at school, or mundane information including daily routines, it takes surprisingly little to start to build your child’s digital footprint.“It might seem innocent, but the fallout could have terrible consequences, so think twice before you share it.”According to a survey of 2,000 UK mums and dads commissioned by Swiss privacy and security company Proton, parents are uploading an average of 63 photos every month to social media – and 59% of these are family photos.One in five (21%) upload pictures of their family multiple times a week, with two in five (38%) sharing them several times a month.Prof Maple warned that just 20 images of your child, or a 30-second video, is enough for AI tools to create a realistic replica of them, which could be used for identity fraud or even more sinister exploitation. Images of children shared online can be used to create sexually explicit deepfakes – fake audio, images and videos that have been generated or manipulated using AI, but look and sound like genuine content.According to Internet Matters, 13% of teens have had an experience with a nude deepfake – and they’re the ones we’re aware of. Many parents will simply not know if their child’s content has been taken and used in a nefarious way.Images – whether real or fake – can then be used to intimidate or blackmail victims.“Parents are unwittingly opening their children up to possible exploitation by criminals who want to use their data for their own purposes,” said Prof Maple.And it’s not just images and videos that can be used, social media posts also reveal sensitive information such as location data and key life moments, he said, which can “be used to create an online profile for children long before they’re old enough to consent to it”.He warned the repercussions of this can be far-reaching. “Oversharing by parents can lead to numerous problems for the child in the future, including digital records that can be extremely difficult and painful to remove, leading to mental anguish, negative reputations, and harm to others,” he said. How can parents take action?The expert warns parents to pause and think carefully before sharing moments online. His plea comes after Dr Madhumitha Ezhil – who runs The Screenfree Parent Instagram account – urged parents to also be wary of uploading photos of their kids to AI platforms.“Not securing children’s data not only opens the door for identity theft and fraud but also exposes them to more sinister forms of extortion and exploitation, and with the rise of digital data sharing and data breaches, the need for stronger protections has never been more pressing,” Prof Maple said. He pointed out that cloud storage services also use personal information in ways that many parents are unaware of and advised storing personal moments on secure storage or to “always read the small print to make sure the product you use is encrypted to safeguard against criminals, as well as not giving third parties access to your information”.Related...Supernanny Jo Frost Warns Parents To 'Wake The F*** Up' Over AIThat Action Figure Trend Could Be Putting Your Cybersecurity At Risk – Here's What To KnowWhy Are So Many Supermarkets Getting Hacked Right Now? I Asked A Cybersecurity Expert

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