This isn’t a photographer thing, it’s everyone’s online privacy issue
Why I’ve Been Posting Less
You may have noticed I’m not posting as much these days, and it comes down to one thing: AI and children’s online privacy, starting with my own choices as a photographer. That’s not an accident, and it’s been building for a while.
I’ve been pulling back gradually for a long time now, and I find myself doing it even more now that I have become a mother. Every photo I share, I look at first as a photographer, and then again as what everyone sees, even the AI. I wasn’t sure if I was going to comment on any of this, or just kind of silently do what I needed to feel confident I was protecting my family and clients. And then, a few weeks ago, a court ruling happened that I had to speak about, and warm other parent.
The Ruling That Changed My Mind
On August 25, 2026, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in U.S. v. Anderegg that private possession of AI-generated sexual imagery depicting fictitious children is protected under the First Amendment, striking down part of the PROTECT Act as unconstitutional in that context. Essentially there is a gap in an old lay that hasn’t caught up to AI yet, and so there is no law against it.
Even the judges in the case were freaked out about this, and acknowledged that the AI produces images,”virtually indistinguishable from those depicting the abuse of actual children,” and the court acknowledged it doesn’t have the authority to modernize a legal framework that was never built for this. (Read the legal breakdown)
Why “Fictitious” Doesn’t Mean Harmless
This is such a wild, horrible and misguided concept. The AI doesn’t make something out of nothing, it learns my combing through enormous amounts of real material. It goes through databases it has access to, and the internet.
So its looking at thousands of photographs it can find online, and re resulting images are an amalgamation of all those things, plus some sort of prompt. The law says this is a “fake” child, and so no child was harmed in the making of these images.
These fake images are made from real ones. That distinction, the one the law is currently resting on, doesn’t hold up to the way this technology actually works.
What I’m Actually Changing
I am not trying to cause panic, but I am sounding the alarm. It is time to take action. As someone who photographs people for a living, including children, its my duty to stay on top of this kind of thing.
So you won’t be seeing me posting many more photographs of clients families, or behind the scenes of their sessions. I am going to be incredibly purposeful of what I share, and ask myself whether this needs to go out into the public at all.
I think privacy is a luxury in this age, and I think that as much as I deserve a right to privacy, so do you. This is something to protect on purpose, and matters more now than every before. If you are a client, your face, and the faces of your children, are not marketing content to me. This is a trust you have given and I will keep earning.
This Isn’t Just a Photographer Thing
This goes for anyone posting images onto the internet, especially those of your children. As a parent, you should be asking some of these questions to yourself too before posting. If you’re a parent scrolling this and wondering whether any of this applies to you outside of hiring a photographer, it does. You need to be asking yourself the same questions before you post yourself.
I know the drive to share the beautiful moments, but these photographs aren’t private, even if you set your profile to private.
There’s good, practical guidance out there on thinking through what to share and what to hold back. (A helpful starting point on “sharenting” and kids’ privacy).
I’m Here for You
Thank you for reading. I’m always thinking about how to protect children’s privacy, and I’ll keep my eyes open as things change. If I come across new information worth sharing, I’ll pass it along.
And if you’re interested in booking a session, I’d love to hear from you.
