Deepfakes: What parents need to know

Editor’s note: Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Lindsay Lieberman, a Washington, DC-based attorney who represents victims of deepfakes, said, “The technology is so sophisticated that it looks like it is my client, and the harm can be just as profound as if it was actually my client’s body.” Victims often “experience psychological harm, including significant distress, anxiety, depression, a sense of humiliation and helplessness, and some even report having suffered post-traumatic stress disorder,” she warned. We don’t want to be part of making other people feel less safe.” Protecting kids from becoming victims Parents also need to educate their kids about the risks of becoming victims. “But if your kids are on social media, you want to talk to them about privacy settings and making sure that they know every single person that they are connected with, and that can see their content.” By sharing content privately — only with people whom they’ve accepted as friends or followers — children can make it harder for strangers or people they consider untrustworthy to access photos of them that can be manipulated. It’s important, Heitner noted, to “treat people who are survivors like survivors and not just victims, and give them opportunities to find community, to move on and to recognize their own strength.” Supporting victims of deepfakes Lieberman said parents and victims can report incidents to the police and FBI, but she also advised reaching out to nonprofits for support, including the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.