Why posting photos of kids' faces hidden with emojis is no longer safe
For years, a few high-profile stars have used emojis to protect their children's privacy on social media.
It’s not an uncommon occurrence nowadays to see a photo covered in emojis, as more people are attempting to maintain some level of anonymity online.
In most of these cases, emojis have been added to family photos - likely using Snapchat, or some editing app - before being carefully moved to shield the faces of their children.
Not only is this likely used as a means of preventing themselves and/or their child from being trolled online, but it also keeps their identity private, so that these youngsters aren't recognisable to potentially dangerous individuals in the real world.
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However, social media users might be prevented from taking advantage of this luxury in the future due to alarming advances in AI technology.
Which celebs use emojis to hide their children's faces?
As we say, in the months after welcoming their son, Rocky, in August 2023, reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian and her Blink-182 drummer husband, Travis Barker, shared several snaps of their newborn online.
The pair are careful, however, always to cover the baby's face with a love-heart emoji. Revealing their reasoning whilst commenting on a leak of a photo of his son last year, Barker said: "Unfortunately, someone finally got a photo of him, but we’d rather keep him out of the spotlight.
"If I could do everything different, I would have done the same thing with my [older] kids,” Travis continued. "I think it’s weird to grow up and you’re 15 or 12, and you’re like, ‘Mom, you posted this of me?'."
Meanwhile, former flames Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry also have kept their daughter Daisy Dove's face covered by emojis online.
The Lord of the Rings actor also does the same for his older son, whom he shares with Miranda Kerr.
Even Meghan Markle - who regularly covers Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet's faces using heart emojis - has spoken about protecting her and Prince Harry's children's privacy on social media.
"Our kids are young. They're three and five. They're amazing," she previously told CBS. "But all you want to do as parents is protect them.
"And so, as we can see what's happening in the online space, we know that there's a lot of work to be done there, and we're just happy to be able to be a part of change for good."
Why might they soon be prevented from using emojis?
As we say, however, both celebs and social media users alike might not be able to use emojis to protect their kids' privacy in the future.
Founder of Cyber Security Unity, Lisa Ventura, told The Independent that information about the child is still being shared by parents who use emojis to cover the face area only.
"I need to be brutally honest here," she explained. "Putting an emoji over a child’s face provides virtually no real privacy protection whatsoever."
This is because their age, build, location, and even which school they attend can be determined through aspects other than their faces, such as their uniform, for example.
"The combined data from all those posts creates a much bigger privacy concern than any single image," Ventura continued, adding that 'it all builds a profile' over time.
"They’re sharing multiple images over time, and the combined data from all those posts creates a much bigger privacy concern than any single image," she said.
And while AI might not be advanced enough to see behind an emoji, cybersecurity strategy manager Bharti Lim recommends not uploading any videos of your child speaking, as 'generative AI is amazing at what it can produce, but it can also be used for the wrong things'.
"I don’t want my children to be used as a source until they are ready to make this decision for themselves," she said.
Topics: Celebrity, Social Media, Artificial intelligence, Technology
Rhianna Benson