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Security Expert Issues Urgent Warning To Parents Who Cover Children’s Faces With Emojis In Photos

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The method is widely used by parents trying to protect their children’s identities online
An online security expert has issued a warning about the risks of using emojis to cover children’s faces in photos shared online.Many parents are understandably cautious when it comes to posting images of their children on social media. Some choose not to share anything at all, while others limit posts to private accounts or take steps to hide identifying details.Sharing photos and videos online now carries added risk, especially as AI tools continue to advance and make image manipulation easier than ever before.

 

 

This concern has grown following disturbing cases where people have used X’s AI Grok to digitally undress images of women without their consent.With that context in mind, any image uploaded to a public platform can pose a risk, which explains why many parents, including celebrities, have turned to emojis as a way to hide their children’s faces.However, according to a cybersecurity expert, this common approach may offer far less protection than people believe.

Parents have been using emojis in an attempt to conceal their kids’ identities onlineKlaus Vedfelt/Getty
Lisa Ventura, an award-winning cybersecurity specialist, told The Independent that covering a child’s face with an emoji is effectively useless when it comes to real privacy protection.“I need to be brutally honest here – putting an emoji over a child’s face provides virtually no real privacy protection whatsoever,” she said. “This approach is more security theatre than actual security.”Security theatre refers to actions that look protective on the surface but fail to deliver meaningful safety, similar to rules that feel reassuring without actually reducing risk.

 

 

So why does this method fall short?

Public figures, such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, have partook in this trendInstagram/@meghan

 

 

Ventura explained: “Most parents aren’t just posting one carefully emoji-protected photo. 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 pointed out that even when a child’s face is hidden, parents often still share a large amount of identifying information. Details like a school uniform, location tags, or repeated backgrounds can make it easier to piece together who the child is, as it all contributes to a broader digital profile.“Every photo you upload trains facial recognition algorithms and builds advertising profiles,” she continued.

 

 

While many parents worry that someone could simply remove the emoji to reveal the child’s face, Ventura says that is not how these images work.Addressing that concern, she added: “There’s a lot of scaremongering about AI being able to magically reconstruct faces from emoji-covered photos.”In most cases, the emoji becomes a permanent part of the image, meaning no one can actually see what was underneath it.

So what steps can parents take to better protect their children’s privacy online?

Actor Orlando Bloom has also shared images of his children with their faces concealed under an emojiInstagram/Orlando Bloom

 

 

The most reliable option, she says, is to avoid sharing images of children on public platforms altogether, or at least think carefully about what you would be comfortable sharing with strangers.“If you wouldn’t hand a physical copy of that photo to a complete stranger in the street, don’t post it online,” she said. “Because that’s essentially what you’re doing, except that stranger might be able to keep it forever, or worse, use it in unauthorised ways you did not intend.”Ventura also stressed that digital footprints are hard to erase and that children rarely have a say in whether their images are posted, adding: “Children deserve to have that right protected until they’re old enough to make informed decisions about their own digital footprint.”

 

 

“It might mean missing out on some likes and comments, but protecting our children’s future autonomy might just be worth that sacrifice.”

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