By: Jennifer Zhou

Parents often worry that their children can be very vulnerable to crime. Now, people all over the world are learning the stories of children who had the misfortune of suffering these cases.

On TikTok, creators have posted videos using AI to recreate the voices of these missing children, letting “them” narrate the horrifying truth of what happened. Technologic experts warn creators that these videos may offend the victim’s loved ones, but the creators of these videos defend it as a way to raise awareness of the crimes.

In one video, a 2-year-old James Bulger “talks” about how he was abducted and later killed. He mentions one of his mother’s previously stated biggest regret, that she had turned left and not right. For if she had turned right she would have been able to prevent her son from being led away.

Stuart Fergus, the husband of James Bulger’s mother, reached out to one creator asking to take down the video. All he received was the simple replied, “We do not intend to offend anyone. We only do these videos to make sure incidents will never happen again to anyone. Please continue to support and share my page to spread awareness.”

Denise Fergus, James’s mother, describes these videos as disgusting and comments that using the mouth and face of a child like this is so horrible she cannot describe it in words.

Tik-Tok spokesperson, Barney Hooper, publicly agreed with her, stating that it is disturbing and there is no place on the platform for these types of videos.Tik-Tok has since removed many videos of James Bulger, but there are still many videos to view on YouTube.

Another video, tells the story of Gabriel Fernández, an 8-year-old boy from California who was tortured by his mother and her boyfriend until he eventually died in 2013. In the video he narrates how when he had started school, the teacher reported that he had bruises on his body. He had asked her if it was normal to bleed when he was hit with a belt. This video has gained more than 25 million views on Tik Tok.

Research has found that emotional content tends to lead to higher engagement, increasing the possibility of content being shared. In the comments section, many viewers leave tributes to the young victims, while others criticize the creators for using these victims for more views.

Tik Tok says that AI “can make it more difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction, carrying both societal and individual risks,” and asks users to add a disclaimer that the content isn’t real.

However, despite Tik-Tok’s effort to remove these videos, many still remain on their page, some of which have millions of views.

AI’s advancement is making many changes in human life. We must ask ourselves whether or not views are really worth it.