Parents are demanding that TikTok transparently label virtual Influencers out of fears that AI characters are imposing complexes on children

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More than 12,000 parents in the US have signed a petition calling on the management of TikTok to introduce a clear designation of virtual influencers generated by artificial intelligence. According to the authors, such characters showing unrealistic beauty can provoke complexes and dysmorphophobia in teenagers.

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The initiator of the campaign is a non-profit organisation ParentsTogether, which advocates the interests of children on the Internet. Shelby Knox, a spokesperson for the non-profit organisation, says that with the rapid advancement of technology, it is difficult for children to distinguish between real and generated content.

Although TikTok has already introduced a special tag for AI content, this is not enough, Knox says. Labelling is not always present, and in bios, virtual celebrities often hide their status by not flaunting the term "virtual Influencer".

Examples include popular accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers where AI girls post candid swimming costume shots. The posts gather a lot of enthusiastic comments about the beauty of the characters created by the neural network.

Parents fear that such content may cultivate in the child a sense of inferiority due to the inconsistency with the imposed standards.

A representative of TikTok assured that the accounts mentioned in the petition are blocked, and the platform takes measures to protect users and prohibits content that promotes dangerous behaviour.

Activists, however, doubt the sufficiency of social networks' efforts and call for stricter regulation of the industry.

Source: NBC