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 right where it occurs, 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.

Social media exists to share one’s life with others, and there is nothing more important in a parent’s life than their children. By the age of five, the average child has 1,500 pictures of them on social media – shared without their consent. This is called “sharenting”.

With the current rise of AI making it easier than ever to abuse this data, The New York Times warns that by 2030, two-thirds of identity fraud cases will be connected to sharenting.

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. 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 circles.

2023 was the year AI tools became easy to use for everyone, raising a lot of concerns about the safety of the data we share in social media.

Yet, parents still share their kids' data on social media, unaware of potential consequences on their future: identity theft, scamming, harassment, deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material.

As Europe’s leading telco brand, Deutsche Telekom’s ambition is to connect everyone to the opportunities of the digital world. But with the privacy of a whole generation at risk, Deutsche Telekom wanted to build on its legacy and step up to protect children against the recent arising threats.

The brief: Develop an organic campaign that brings awareness to the digital threat of online sharing, inspires behavioral change, and strengthens the brand’s perception as a protective force for the digital society.

75 % of parents share their children’s data online. This can have devastating consequences: As seen in the Washington State House testament of 24-year-old Caymi Barret, whose childhood pictures – shared online by her own parents – have haunted her well into her adulthood.

Our survey among German parents with young children confirmed their ambiguous risk assessment: While 69 % agree pictures once posted are probably staying online forever, only a minority of them considers cyberbullying (38 %), child sexual abuse material (29 %) or identity theft (27 %) as likely threats.

We had to show parents how their actions today affect their children tomorrow.

Using the latest Al technology on a single photograph, we created the virtually aged version of 9-year-old Ella. In our film, she confronts parents with the consequences of sharing kids' data online, sending a gut-wrenching warning from the future.

An entire generation of oversharing Parents doesn’t seem to understand that their memories shared online are actually data, that can be abused by criminals.

Spreading general awareness for the problem wouldn’t help us to get through to them. We had to go further and confront parents with the drastic impact of their own actions – closing the perceived gap between today’s behavior and tomorrow’s consequences.

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.

By reaching out to opinion leaders on children’s rights, we aimed at and sparking an online discussion. Cinema and video ads are used to highlight the film, multiplying its reach and encouraging conversations 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 to open up about their sharenting behavior, 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 over 51 million views and 3.7 billion earned impressions in 71 countries. Over 400+ media outlets picked up Ella’s message.

The strategy of using highly-emotional storytelling payed of – as seen in a 64 % view-though-rate (Benchmark: 10 %).

The film sparked the public’s demand for children’s online privacy – indicated by a 1000% increase in google searches for “sharenting” and over 184.000 visits to the German campaign landing page since its launch on 3rd of July 2023.

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.

Ella’s message is now an educational tool used by European police agencies, such as the Scotland police and the state polices across Germany.

With “A message from Ella”, we confronted a generation of oversharers. Today’s parents grew up in a time, where social media was care-free, public and generally safe. To these parents, pictures shared online are just memories.

But with the rise of online fraud, AI and deepfake technology, memories turn data, that can be easily exploited. We needed to change parent’s online behavior – to protect their children in the future.