🧠 When AI Becomes the Predator: What Every Parent Needs to Know
One moment, Elijah was a regular 16-year-old texting friends, gaming online, just living his life.
The next, he received a threatening message with an AI-generated nude image of himself, demanding $3,000 to keep it from being shared with friends and family.
The image?
It never existed.
Until AI created it.
💔 Everything changed.
🎯 AI: This Is the New Frontier
In my recent #DigitalParenting Masterclass, I said something that stunned even the most tech-savvy parents:
AI is now being used to manipulate, extort, and traumatize children with precision and speed.
We cannot afford to let AI become the next unregulated crisis like social media before it.
Regulations are struggling to keep up.
Guardrails don’t exist.
And our children are living through the consequences.
This isn’t fear-mongering.
This is the new digital reality.
🌪️ Discussion: The Perfect Storm Is Here
Together AI, Social media plus an unprepared digital landscape has created the perfect storm.
And in the eye of that storm? Are Our children.
Elijah’s story isn’t fiction. It’s real, recent, and heartbreaking.
What makes it worse is that his parents had never heard of sextortion. Neither did they know it was targeting teenage boys.
They didn’t know AI could generate fake but convincing nudes in seconds.
What happened to Elijah is devastating but sadly not rare.
And it is important to be clear:
❌ Fear is not a strategy
❌ Denial is not a strategy
❌ Avoidance is not a strategy
❌ Hope is not a strategy
We need a new kind of parenting that is informed, intentional, and digitally literate.
🧭 What Is The Strategy?
In my book Digital Savvy Parenting, I outline the 3Es framework to guide parents in raising digitally resilient children. It’s not about panic. It’s about purpose.
1. Educate
Parents must educate themselves about AI, deepfakes, and new online threats like sextortion. Understanding how these tools work helps us spot red flags before it’s too late.
2. Empower
Knowledge without action is not enough. Parents must feel empowered to make bold, clear decisions for their families. This means setting boundaries, having open conversations, and choosing tech tools intentionally, not reactively.
3. Empathy
Today’s children are growing up in a world that is radically different from the one we knew. Empathy allows us to parent not from judgment, but from insight. It reminds us to ask: What is my child navigating emotionally in this digital space?
Empathy creates the safety net where your child feels seen, heard, and supported enough to come to you, even when they’ve made a mistake.
👥 Community Spotlight
After a recent LagosMums online safety training, a head of school shared a story.
A girl who was quiet in class and always polite was the queen of her class WhatsApp group. And not just a queen but the mastermind behind cyberbullying.
Behind the scenes, she used it to control her classmates.
And her parents couldn’t believe it.
This is what we mean when we say the child you know in person may be unrecognizable online.
This isn’t about blaming or shaming.
It’s about recognizing how online disinhibition and unchecked digital spaces change behavior.
🔊 Takeaways
🧠 “The new playground is digital. And the new predators aren’t people. They’re algorithms.”
👀 “Your child’s biggest risk online may not be strangers. It may be shame, secrecy, and AI-generated lies.”
🚫 “AI doesn’t need your child to upload a photo. It can fake one and use it to trap them.”
💬 “Digital parenting isn’t about knowing every app. It’s about equipping yourself with education, empowerment, and empathy to guide your children through anything.”
💬 Final Thoughts: This Is Our Wake-Up Call
Elijah’s story is a tragic reminder that parenting in the digital age requires more than good intentions.
It calls for vigilance, courage and compassion.
We are the first generation of parents navigating a world where AI can outsmart us and social media never sleeps. But we are not powerless.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed or unsure of how to keep your children safe online, know this: you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be present, informed, and willing to grow.
Start where you are.
Ask the questions.
Have the conversations.
And lead with the 3Es: Educate, Empower, and Empathy.
Because the most powerful safety tool your child has… is you.
Connect on Social Media
Connect with us on social media! You can find us at @LagosMums for General Intentional Parenting Content on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our website, which offers a wealth of parenting resources.
And 📲 follow @digitalsavvyparenting on Instagram for more information on digital parenting.
Want to book a coaching or training session on Digital Resilience, Family Digital Wellbeing, and Online Safety for your family or school?
Visit here to book and here for One-on-One Coaching
Till next time,
Stay Digitally Savvy,
Yetty Williams
Digital Parenting Coach | Cyberpsychology | Founder, LagosMums
Author, Digital Savvy Parenting: What the World Urgently Needs