Over 75% of parents share their kids' data on social media – this is called “sharenting”, and although it is a serious problem, it hasn’t yet captured parents' attention the way it deserves.

So, to change parents’ behavior, we created the #ShareWithCare campaign: kickstarted by a gut-wrenching AI-generated video, we directly targeted parents to show them the dangers of sharenting.

“A Message from Ella” became an instant viral hit on all platforms, grabbing the attention of millions including media outlets around the world, starting a global movement for children’s online safety.

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.

Before we could change parents’ actions we had to first grab their full attention, so we went with something no parent can ignore: a child in need.

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.

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 PR strategy was built upon a communication piece which no parent can ignore: a child in need.

Parents tend to think their children’s digital safety solely depends on their kids' online behavior. Therefore, parents focus all their energy on controlling their kids, and telling them what to do, disregarding the consequences of their own actions.

To raise awareness for the issue of “sharenting”, and convince parents to #ShareWithCare, we flipped the script and gave voice to a child, by creating a powerful testimonial that could show parents the consequences of their careless online behavior.

Our #ShareWithCare campaign had two phases. The first phase initiated on the 1st of July 2023 with the publication of Ella’s Message on Telekom’s owned channels, and had the goal to establish and own the topic of “sharenting” and focused only on earned and owned channels. The second phase took place between the September and October of 2023, engaging in-depth discussions with the German public, focusing on owned channels but also paid channels and media cooperations, all to turn the conversation into action, and effectively stop parents sharenting behaviour.

Ella’s message kickstarted a global debate about sharenting, with 2.9 billion global earned media impressions.

Major and esteemed newspapers and media outlets like The New York Times (USA), the Daily Mail (UK), Hürriyet (Turkey), ELLE (Italy, France), CNN (Portugal) picked up and helped spread “A Message from Ella”, which sparked the public’s demand for data privacy and security information, leading to a record of over 184.000 visits to the campaign landing page since its launch on 3rd July 2023.

#ShareWithCare led to real change, proven by a pre/post-exposure survey with Appinio in September, in which we showed 538 parents of children under the age of 14 years our film and found out that: 2 out of 3 parents changed their opinion on “sharenting”; 55% of parents, who previously shared their children's images, said they would conceal their identity in the future; 38% of parents who previously shared pictures of their children will stop doing it.

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

Also, during the ShareWithCare campaign, Brand Image Tracking indicated a +3 PP increase in the brand image “corporate social responsibility” KPI.

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.