Topics: Meghan Markle, Royal Family, Artificial intelligence, Technology, Social Media, Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet
Despite turning to social media earlier this year following a lengthy break, Meghan Markle has continued to shield the faces of her two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, from the public.
On the rare occasion that she shares a snap of the twosome - with whom she shares with husband Prince Harry - the Duchess makes the conscious decision use an emoji to hide their facial features.
An example was the family's trip to Disneyland back in June in celebration of Lilibet's fourth birthday. In several snaps from the special occasion, both she and her seven-year-old brother had their faces shielded by giant love-heart stickers.
Apparently, however, tech experts are growing increasingly concerned that the use of emojis to cover the facial features of celebrity youngsters mightn't be enough to keep them safe - not where AI is involved.
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Alongside the likes of Kourtney Kardashian and husband Travis Barker, and now-exes Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry, 43-year-old Meghan hides the faces of her kids consciously in a bid to protect their privacy.
"Our kids are young... 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."
As we say, however, a vital warning has been issued to the Duchess alongside every other Instagram-using parent.
"I need to be brutally honest here: putting an emoji over a child’s face provides virtually no real privacy protection whatsoever," Cyber Security Unity founder Lisa Ventura told The Independent recently.
This is due to the wider information on the child that their parent has inadvertently shared, by including other parts of their body.
In doing this, information on a youngster's build, their age and even which school they attend has the potential to be deduced by users of artificial intelligence with unsavoury intentions.
Ventura went on to explain: "The combined data from all those posts creates a much bigger privacy concern than any single image," before 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."
With latest AI advances in mind cybersecurity strategy manager Bharti Lim also recommends avoiding uploading any content that includes a child speaking, given that the technology is 'amazing at what it can produce, but it can also be used for the wrong things'.
She continued: "I don’t want my children to be used as a source until they are ready to make this decision for themselves."
