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.

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 a PR-led 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.

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.

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.

So, to raise awareness for the issue of “sharenting”,

and convince parents to #ShareWithCare, we gave voice to a child, by creating a cautionary tale that confronted parents with the consequences of their careless online behavior.

In creating a “testimonal” for online data abuse, we anticipated parents’ willingness to share highly emotional and shocking content, and the media outlet’s thirst for trending topics.

Our #ShareWithCare campaign had two phases. The first phase initiated on the 3rd 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 the public in meaningful discussions. From TikTok to Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, thought leaders endorsed our message. Parenting influencers spread it among their communities. We made the jump outside of social media to messengers like WhatsApp, turning our target audience into organic influencers themselves, spreading our message among family and friends. On our campaign landing page, we provided parents with further educational resources on how to #ShareWithCare.

We alerted people about “sharenting”, a problem hidden in plain sight.

• The public indifference abruptly changed during our campaign, indicated by a tenfold increase of Google searches and the highest search peak in five years.

• 400+ esteemed media outlets like The New York Times (USA), the Daily Mail (UK), Hürriyet (Turkey), ELLE (Italy, France), CNN (Portugal) referenced our campaign, resulting in 3.7B earned media impressions.

• We sparked the public’s demand for information about children’s online privacy, proven by more than 184.000 visits to the campaign landing page since its launch on 3rd July 2023.

Ella’s message made an oversharing parent generation reflect on their behavior.

• 2 out of 3 parents surveyed now oppose sharing children’s data online, marking a +83% increase vs. pre-exposure

• 55% of parents, who previously shared their children's images, said they would conceal their identity in the future.

• 38% of parents intend to stop sharenting

Reinforcing Deutsche Telekom as a protective force for the digital society.

• 62% of the non-customer parents will consider Telekom because of its social commitment.

• +3 PP increase in perception as a socially responsible brand.

Ultimately, our film's impact extended beyond social media, and Ella’s message is now an educational tool used by European authorities and institutions, non-profits, schools and police forces: “Deutschland sicher im Netz”, “Digitalführerschein”, “teach today”, BvD, the Scotland police and the state polices of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, and Baden-Wurttemberg, 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.