Experts have urged parents to exercise caution when uploading photographs of their children to artificial intelligence tools, warning that the images could be stored, reused or shared without their full understanding.
The warning comes amid reports of parents using AI tools to remove watermarks from school photographs to avoid paying for the images.
While acknowledging the potential benefits of AI, specialists have advised families to review platforms’ privacy policies and check whether uploaded photographs could be used to train AI models, according to BBC.
“It’s not about avoiding AI altogether,” said George Martin, security and data protection adviser at South West Grid for Learning. “It’s about understanding what happens to those images once they’ve been uploaded.”
Artificial intelligence tools are increasingly being used to edit photographs, generate images, translate documents and perform everyday tasks.
While proponents say the technology saves time and improves accessibility, concerns persist over how platforms collect, store and use data uploaded by users.
“Parents have limited visibility over what happens to the images once they’re uploaded,” Martin said.
“The second point is how that image could be used. An image of a child’s school photograph could train a model.”
Most AI platforms allow users to adjust their privacy settings to prevent uploaded content from being used to train models, although the available options differ across services.
Martin said users could change their settings on AI platforms to prevent their uploaded images from being used for model training.
“Most AI platforms default to that if they can so it is important to have a look at those settings,” he added.
The debate highlights broader concerns about the risks of sharing children’s photographs online.
