What happens if an objectionable image of your child appears on the internet?
By Rachel Mortimer | Posted: Tuesday August 18, 2026
In a recent study across eleven countries, at least 1.2 million children described having their images manipulated into explicit deepfakes in the past year.
The main aspects of this week's article come from SafeonSocial.com, but it has been paraphrased and altered to be relevant for New Zealanders seeking help.
The full article by Kirra Prendergast, can be accessed through the following link;
In many countries, some services allow under-18-year-olds to flag images or videos of themselves to get them taken down. In a recent UK report, 420 reports were deepfaked images that were manipulated or generated by AI. That equates to 420 young people who have seen images of their face on a body that was not theirs, in a situation that never happened, in images they never consented to. 420 in six months is already higher than the total for the whole of 2025.
Some children have been targeted for sexual extortion with images they never took. Some of the cases described in the report involve girls who were scraped from an ordinary school photo. In one recent international study across eleven countries, at least 1.2 million children described having their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year. During filming of ‘Role of a lifetime” on the ABC, the author of the article took a screenshot of a photo of themselves on Instagram, searched for a nudify app and created a totally naked deepfake in under 3 minutes. It is quite overwhelming to fully understand just how easily this can happen to our kids.
How the harm shows up:
Ordinary photo taken from a public profile. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, school website, sports club roster.
Fed into a nudify or generative AI app. The apps are widely available. Some are ad-supported and served on major platforms.
The resulting image is used for social humiliation. A shared group chat. A screenshot posted in a Discord server. A tagged post.
Or the image is used for sextortion. The child is told to pay, to share a real image, or to keep talking, or the fake image will be sent to family and school.
Or the image is uploaded to a “leak” site or an image board. These sites host manipulated images alongside real ones. Removal requires reporting.
The child recognises their own face and does not recognise their own body. This is a specific, disorienting form of shock. Adults should expect it.
The child does not tell anyone. Shame does not care whether the image was ever real. That is the whole harm.
The child tells a peer, who tells another peer, who tells no adult. The information ends up circulating inside the year group without any adult knowing.
Or the child tells one adult, who reacts badly. This is the intervention point every family and school can prepare for.
Or the child comes forward, is believed, and the image is removed within days. That is the outcome this cheat sheet is trying to make ordinary.
The tools are cheap, and even though many have been banned, they are still out there and pop up all the time so it is near impossible to shut down.
Here is what to do if it happens to your child or student:
Please breathe. If a child comes to you and says, “there is a picture of me and it isn’t real”, believe them. The first five minutes are the most important. They do not have to share a photo for a deepfake image to be created of them. It could come from your public social media, a school, sports club, dance class or a friend's page.
Screenshot the URL of where the image is hosted, not the image itself. Do not delete anything as it may be needed for evidence. Sit next to them while you do this. Also screenshot any accompanying threats or messages.
Contact Netsafe immediately. Netsafe does not differentiate between real or AI-generated media, and they will help you regardless. Report online via the Netsafe Online Abuse Portal;
(they are able to assist in the rapid removal of any material on a platform).
If under 18, you can also use a global platform, Take It Down, run by NCMEC. It creates a unique digital fingerprint (hash) of the image to prevent it being uploaded.
If your child is being blackmailed with the image, do not pay. Save messages. Report to the police, as this is a criminal offence under the Harmful Digital Communications Act.
NZ Police: Harmful Digital Communications Act (2015)
Deepfakes are covered by NZ law. Nine times out of ten, the image can come off the internet if it is reported quickly and hashed.
Small things you can do together. None of these requires your child to give anything up.
Please say this to your child “The picture is not the whole of you. It is a screenshot of your face and someone else’s cruelty. We can take it down. Let us look at how, together, before you ever need it. Show them steps that can be taken, not because they need it now but because the teenager in your kitchen should know the service is there before the day it might be relevant.
Show them Take It Down. Global. Free. Anonymous.
Have a “no matter what” conversation. Reassure often: “If there is ever a picture of you, real or not, that someone is using against you, I want to know. I will not be angry. I will not take your phone. I will help you get it taken down. That is the deal.”
Set the family rule about tagging. If a friend or parent posts a photo of them, they get to ask for it to come down. Everyone practises the ask.
Being the adult that the child always feels safe coming to is the most important support you can give.