Save the ChildrenNew guide provides information on the misuse of everyday recordings of children

Children sucking on ice cream, doing gymnastics in tight leotards or looking wide-eyed at the camera: Photos and videos do not necessarily have to show bare skin to be of interest to pedocriminals. With a new guide, the children's rights organization Save the Children is now calling on schools, kindergartens, clubs and other stakeholders to take a critical look at the publication of all images of children. klicksafe supported the creation of the guide in an advisory capacity.

New guide provides information on the misuse of everyday recordings of children

The guide focuses on photos and videos that show children in everyday situations and that are perceived as harmless at first glance - even though they harbor risks. This is because everyday photos are also stolen from social media channels and websites and uploaded to relevant internet forums. There, the photos and videos are viewed, shared and sexualized. This happens, for example, through obscene texts and comments, sexual sounds or certain hashtags and emojis. In addition, AI tools are increasingly being used to make photos look deceptively real. Deepnude generators or nudifiers can be used to sexualize images of clothed children with just a few clicks.

Parents' accounts are targeted by perpetrators, as are the websites of schools, after-school care centres, kindergartens, sports clubs and organizations. Save the Children's guide is particularly aimed at such institutions and organizations. This publication is intended to provide them with the knowledge to make informed decisions about which images to share and publish and which are better not to.

The content of the publication is based on numerous discussions with experts from child and youth protection organizations and the police. cooperation partner is jugendschutz.net, the joint competence center of the federal government, the federal states and the state media authorities for the protection of children and young people on the Internet. The 36-page digital publication provides background information on paedocrime on the internet and explains with many examples how perpetrators act. Illustrations are used to compare risky and less risky motifs and recommendations are given - both on image selection and technical safety precautions. Another chapter deals with the rights of children who are violated by the misappropriation of their image material.