The dark side of back-to-school: Why Express VPN urges parents to rethink their online privacy habits | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

The dark side of back-to-school: Why Express VPN urges parents to rethink their online privacy habits

Before you post that proud uniform shot, cybersecurity experts are urging families to consider the hidden dangers of AI image scraping

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Express VPN and the IWF warn against the danger of 'sharenting'

56% of kids feel parents overlook their privacy concerns, research reveals

Ahead of back-to-school, parents are urged to rethink their online habits

As millions of students head back to the classroom, social media feeds are inevitably flooding with proud first-day-of-school photos. But cybersecurity experts are urging parents to rethink their posting habits, warning that innocent images are increasingly being scraped and manipulated by malicious actors.

While families are often quick to warn kids about talking to strangers and using strong passwords, adults routinely post their children's names, faces, school uniforms, and birthdays with little of the same scrutiny — a phenomenon known as sharenting.

Now, Express VPN — the provider behind one of the best VPNs on the market — has partnered with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to sound the alarm on the modern risks of public photo sharing.

Express VPN – best easy-to-use VPN Express VPN is a secure and easy-to-use VPN, making it a top choice for families and beginners. It’s also very fast — particularly on Windows thanks to the Lightway Turbo protocol. Subscriptions start at $2.49 per month on the two-year plan. As with most VPNs, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The core concern revolves around the rapid rise of AI "nudification" tools. These easily accessible programs make it trivially simple for criminals to manipulate an ordinary photo.

In July, the National Crime Agency and the IWF explicitly warned that AI is being used to harvest everyday photos — including images lifted directly from public school websites — to generate child sexual abuse material.

'A cybersecurity disaster waiting to happen' — The VPN industry reacts to the UK's teen social media ban

‘Surveillance is not safety’ — UK’s device scanning order faces privacy backlash

Australia's social media ban shows UK child safety measures are bound to fail — and it's not because of VPNs

IWF CEO Kerry Smith stressed the gravity of the situation, deeming it "deeply sad" that parents need to refrain from sharing important family moments because of the risk that those images could be exploited by criminals.

Yet, "Tackling this requires a collective response — from families, government, technology platforms and society as a whole — to better protect children online.”

Express VPN already collaborates with the IWF to combat this material, blocking access across its network to web domains confirmed by the IWF to host it.

A spy in your pocket? How the UK’s proposed on-device nude image blocking could work in reality

Circumvention tool or essential security software? The shifting role of VPNs in the UK

VPN deal of the week: Prep for campus with $14 off Express VPN and 4 bonus months

Leave No Trace investigates the companies and governments putting our digital freedom at risk — and the people fighting back.

📩 Subscribe now to get every edition delivered to your inbox every Friday, launching this September.

Setting a new family standard for digital privacy

New You Gov research commissioned by the VPN Trust Initiative reveals a stark disconnect in household privacy.

While 77% of parents worry about their child's online privacy, the worry isn't one-sided: 56% of children say they are concerned about their own privacy. Yet, the decision of what actually gets posted is largely dominated by the adults, frequently without the child's say-so.

This practice is telling, considering that, as Dr. Pete Membrey, Chief Research Officer at Express VPN, points out, children learn privacy from the choices the parents make.

"A parent who asks before posting, explains who will see a photo, and accepts the answer is teaching consent far better than any lecture about being careful online," said Membrey, warning that "Back to school is when the photos go up fastest, so it's the moment to set that standard."

Membrey suggests families start the school year with a collaborative conversation, answering six key questions:

What are we each comfortable sharing about one another?

Which family details should stay out of public posts?

Which new apps, accounts or online groups have appeared this year?

What will happen when someone receives unwanted contact or shares something they regret?

Which privacy decisions is the child ready to manage independently now?

"Sharing our children's milestones comes from a good place, and no parent should feel bad about it," Membrey added. "The small shift that helps is treating our own posts with the same care we'd want our children to use one day."

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

Rene Millman is a seasoned technology journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, Computer Weekly, and IT Pro. With over two decades of experience as a reporter and editor, he specializes in making complex topics like cybersecurity, VPNs, and enterprise software accessible and engaging.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Why browser security tools are the best defense against business data leaks

Adobe Firefly just added three new AI audio tools for creators and marketers — I tested them all to see if they're any good

Sony leak suggests it's rebooting some of its best ever headphones to compete with Bose and Sennheiser — but I'm not sure the predicted price is going to be cheap enough

Claude hit me with a usage limit, so I moved the entire conversation to Chat GPT — this free browser extension made it ridiculously easy

Scientists develop next-gen zinc-iodine batteries with 60,000+ cycles that charge in 3 minutes — and they won't catch fire either

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Key Takeaways

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards