Over 75% of parents share their kids' data on social media, unaware of how badly it could impact their future. So, to fight this issue happening on social media, we took a social-first approach and created a buzz-driving “testimonial” for data abuse.

We targeted parents directly on the channels they expose their children’s data on, and relied on their willingness to share highly emotional content – kickstarting an organic domino effect across platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and even messengers like WhatsApp, turning “A Message From Ella” into a viral hit.

With the current rise of AI and deepfake technology, abusing personal data has never been easier. Turning social media into a treasure trove of data which criminals can exploit in more ways than ever.

Yet, 75% of parents still share their kids' data on social media, unaware that they are exposing them to severe dangers like identity theft, scamming, harassment and even child pornography.

To make matters worse, 2 out of 3 parents have followers and social media connections they’ve never met in real life before – making it easy for criminals to infiltrate their private online circles.

With the digital privacy of a whole generation at risk, Germany’s leading telecommunications brand needed to take action and make parents change their online sharing behavior – and finally start to #ShareWithCare.

Most people share pictures of their children. It’s often seen as harmless and normal online behavior. After all, social media exists to share one’s life with others, and there is nothing more important for parents than their children.

The problem is that for criminals those simple pictures are data – which can be compiled and later manipulated and exploited.

And even though lawmakers around the world are slowly turning their attention to this matter, the mass audience is still mostly unaware of the dangers of carelessly sharing children’s pictures and videos online.

So far, the public debate in many countries mainly focuses on the topic of “child labor”, with the public urging content creators to stop using their children in social media videos but ignoring the future and present dangers which anonymous parents expose their children to just by sharing “simple” photos.

That’s why during Europe’s summer holiday season 2023, when parents typically flood social media with beach photos of their children, we launched a powerful message to make them think twice before pressing the “share” button.

Using the latest Al technology on a single photograph, we created the virtually aged version of a 9-year-old girl: Ella. In our film, she confronts her parents – and by extension parents worldwide – with the consequences of sharing kids' data online, sending a gut-wrenching warning from the future on all relevant social media platforms. This way, our film became both a literal demonstration of AI manipulation capabilities and an emotional plea for the online safety of all children. As part of the campaign, we also created a solution to the problem: a social media filter pixelating children’s faces, empowering parents to #ShareWithCare and easily protect their children’s privacy.

Our goal was to launch the first brand activation campaign that asks people to de-activate. Therefore, we specifically wanted to target parents and parents-to-be, based on their interests in parenting and family content – on the very channels where sharenting and data theft occur.

In creating a “testimonal” for online data abuse, we took advantage of parents’ willingness to share highly emotional and shocking content, expecting it to spread into private messaging groups and family conversations.

We incorporated opinion leaders on children’s rights, psychology and competent media usage on LinkedIn and Twitter to spread the discussion and spark an online discussion.

Cinema and video ads were used to highlight the film, multiplying its reach and encouraging communication in offline spaces.

“A message from Ella” was first published on 3rd of July. We shared our film on the relevant social media platforms, targeting parents specifically where they share their children’s data: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (Online Video and Preroll). Using Content Creators opening up about their sharenting behaviour, we boosted the campaign across social media.

We activated opinion leaders on LinkedIn and Tiktok, by linking our film to a campaign website, providing additional information on the topic of sharenting and identity fraud.

In cinema, we combined the emotional gravitas of Ella’s message with the immersive atmosphere of the big screen.

After advising families to #ShareWithCare, we encouraged parents to use our social media filter to automatically pixelate children’s faces immediately when videos and pictures are taken.

Ella’s message became a viral hit, reaching 71 countries with over 51 million views and 2.9 billion impressions, sparking the public’s demand for data privacy and security information, which led to a record of over 184.000 visits to the German campaign landing page since its launch on 3rd of July 2023.

Thousands of social media comments indicate behavioral change, confirmed in a pre/post-exposure survey where 2 out of 3 parents stated they changed their opinion on “sharenting” and 55% of parents, who previously shared their children's images, said they would conceal their identity in the future.

62% of non-customer parents affirmed that Telekom’s data safety and virtual privacy commitment will make them consider the company as a telecommunications provider in the future.

Furthermore, Ella’s message is now an educational tool used by European police agencies, such as the Scotland police and the state police of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen, Germany.

A message from Ella is relevant for all social media channels because the message it carries concerns the usage behavior of social platforms by parents.