Info cards for parents & Young peopleToo naked for the internet? You should consider this before posting!

Many young people post pictures of themselves online or send them to friends. And even children without their own smartphone may already appear in their parents' posts on the internet. Unfortunately, images of children and young people can be misused. For example, for bullying attacks, attempts at blackmail or to place them in a sexualized context. With our revised material "Too naked for the internet?", we support parents and young people in deciding whether a picture belongs on the internet or should perhaps remain private.

Too naked for the internet? You should consider this before posting!

Unfortunately, there are always cases in which images of children or young people are misappropriated on the Internet. In the context of sextortion for example, victims are blackmailed with revealing photos. Anyone who does not pay or send further material is threatened that all images will be published. 

It is now also known that harmless images of children are collected en masse on the internet and published elsewhere. The images are then made available to people with a sexual interest in children, are sexually commented on and downloaded.

AI programs are opening up a new field of danger. With their help, it is possible to edit harmless everyday images in such a way that the people depicted appear naked. It is also possible to insert a person's face into pornographic images in a deceptively real way.

There are therefore many reasons why the benefits and risks should be weighed upbefore publishing images and videos on the internet. On our revised info cards in the new design , parents and young people are guided through this weighing up process by means of ten questions. The cards should not be understood to mean that every piece of content must be checked for potential problems before it is sent. Rather, they are intended to stimulate discussion and provide food for thought on how not to share content online without thinking.

In addition to the info card for young people, we also offer accompanying material for the work of media scouts. In this peer-to-peer project, trained young scouts act as speakers themselves and train their classmates. They also act as contact persons for media-related questions and problems.