The Auckland mother says after reading the clause, she has been put off the experience. Photo: Derich Anrey / 123rf
An enchanted Santa experience became more of a nightmare for one Auckland mum, after she discovered the Terms and Conditions would allow the business to use any photos taken of her children for its advertising or social media.
Enchanted Christmas in Auckland's Newmarket boasts 180 decorated Christmas trees, hundreds of thousands of lights and decorations, along with photo opportunities with Santa Claus and the Grinch.
The owners of Enchanted Christmas have told Checkpoint they are now removing the term from their website and if they include any families in their posts or advertising, they will ask them to opt in.
But scientist and mum Michelle Dickinson was put off after reading the terms and conditions, that she believed ignored children's digital privacy and the risks of artificial intelligence.
Dickinson told Checkpoint like any other parent, she was hunting for a Christmas experience her family could enjoy.
"Enchanted Christmas has done an amazing job of using influencers and trying to get people to buy tickets and it looked amazing, so right before I bought my tickets I just checked the Terms and Conditions.
"I read it says very specifically Enchanted Christmas reserves the right to use photos taken by our team and our photographer for advertising purposes and on our social media platforms."
She said after reading the clause, she was put off the experience.
"There's no opt out there, there's no discussion of where my child's pictures would be stored, how long for, where they might be shared, what might protect them."
Dickinson said most of her concerns were not with Enchanted Christmas' use of the photos, but instead how they could be used once they were online.
"My concerns are very evidence based, I work in artificial intelligence every day and we have published papers now that have shown that images of especially children in horrible places on the internet are being combined with artificial intelligence for not great uses.
"We know that they're being added to AI Digital humans and avatars, so you don't have the rights to your face or your child's face anymore. And we know we're highly at risk in New Zealand because we don't have an opt out policy of children's faces on social media being used for AI training."
Currently New Zealand has no binding laws when it comes to Artificial Intelligence.
Dickinson said this was something she wanted to see change.
"I would love to see better policies here that really protect us - I think New Zealand is one of the most vulnerable countries in the OECD when it comes to our children's faces and AI training."
She said she just like putting a seatbelt on her kids, she wanted to keep them safe online too.
"I feel like they should choose whether or not they want a digital footprint, so I'm waiting for them to be old enough to choose that. My children do not have a digital footprint, their faces are not online.
"Remember that your children are cute now, but they're going to grow up to be adults and everything that is online can never be removed and AI can never unlearn."
Enchanted Christmas told Checkpoint, in addition to removing the term from their website, they have not used any images without permission, and respect the privacy of people and especially children.
The creators of Enchanted Christmas said clause was included in their terms and conditions because they could not be sure that visitors would not post photos and video featuring other attendees.
Those posts could be liked, shared and potentially be used in collaboration with "Enchanted Christmas" on social media platforms, which may be seen as advertising.
They said they also wanted to be able to use photos from the opening night in advertising, and other images taken onsite could be used in workshops.
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