Disrupting image representation in the Age of AI 

Insights of a participatory researcher into how we represent children and young people in our work across the cultural education sector.

26 September 2025

Molly Wilson, theatre maker, lecturer, and PhD candidate at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, shares how her participatory research with young people is challenging the way we think about digital ‘self’ representation and how the cultural education sector can take a more consistent, critical approach to image use. 

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The rise in AI technologies, including deepfake and generative imagery, has intensified concerns around how children's images are used and misused online. Increasingly, images posted by youth groups and schools are being scraped and reused, sometimes in harmful ways. Meanwhile, young people are taught to be cautious, yet adults around them frequently breach the very safety guidelines they’re expected to follow.

Despite getting photo consent from parents, we often aren’t asking the young people themselves for their permission. Many organisations have vague or ill-implemented policies on the duration of image use and there are grey areas surrounding the rights to images i.e. once a 15-year-old (whose parent’s consented to their image being used) turns 18 and is legally able to make decisions for themselves regarding their image. With safeguarding high on the agenda, now is the time for organisations to get informed and take action.

As a theatre maker and researcher working with young people, I’ve become increasingly aware of how digital self-representation is shifting – both in how young people want to represent themselves online, and their perception of how others represent them online. In an age of AI-generated imagery, deepfakes, and ongoing concerns about surveillance and consent, the question of how young people appear online isn’t just a safeguarding issue - it’s a creative one.

In my participatory PhD project Disrupting Digital Girlhood, adolescent girls and trans young people have experimented with faceless selfies, stylised content, and anonymous storytelling, not centred around online safety, but to express themselves in richer, more complex ways. Their creativity disrupts traditional norms of representation, and invites us, as cultural workers, educators, and organisations, to not just use digital platforms (social media, websites, etc) as a space for sharing creative work, but as a tool for making it.

Tapestry of contradictions

I’ve worked alongside groups of young people to explore how they want to be seen online - and crucially, how they don’t. The young people have shared their concerns in a tapestry of contradictions. They want to be present online but also feel exposed – one girl noted “I try not to think about it but its crazy that just anyone could find pictures of my face and do what they want with them”. They want to express themselves with selfies and video content, but they feel the enormous social pressures of comparison and aesthetic expectations online – another explained “I actually get mad depressed if I only get a few likes on a post”.

They understand that they need to be safe, but observe contradictions in the advice given by adults, and the way that adults continue to use their images – students made numerous comments on this, “Our faces are all over the school website though”, “The website for my drama class has like whole bio pages for us all”, “We have those talks about cyber safety and cyber bullying and that, and I get that it’s meant to keep us safe, but it’s not just me that posts things of me. It’s my friends, my parents, even the school Insta, which was so embarrassing.”

What emerged most consistently was the desire for creative control over how they are shared online, in what way, and why – One girl commented, “If I don’t want my photo on the school register system, I should be allowed to say that.” Another agreed “Okay, yeah, my mum signed the photo consent, but I should be able to say yes or no to each photo.” This contradiction of being told to guard their data while simultaneously being publicly displayed, creates a dissonance. And in response, young people in my project created art that sidestepped visibility in favour of intimacy, play, and power.

Communicating without the face

So, what does this look like in practice? Young people created a range of visual and audio-led work that avoided facial imagery altogether. Instead, they found inventive ways to convey emotion, identity, and presence:

  • Silhouetted or blurred photography – young people played with lights and shadows to create interesting visuals of the self that don’t centre the face. Young people said, “It was actually so nice to take photos of myself without being obsessed with what my face looked like or what my hair was doing” and “I really focused on the lights and the colours. I wouldn’t even think about that stuff if my face was in it.”

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  • Personal object portraits and abstract compositions – in the selfie taking workshop, I asked young people to bring in items from home that were special to them. These items were then incorporated into the selfies taken. Young people covered their faces with a book, or a teddy, some experimented with taking photos of photos and distorting them. One young person took a photo of every person in the room, layered the images over each other so that no one person was identifiable, and called it a “group photo”. One girl commented “It’s nice because people who really know me will know that this is my photo because they’ll know like what book is my favourite and what my teddy looks like. But other people will just see a cool photo and not know it’s me in it.”

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  • Painted or collaged portraits – all young people in my project created self portraits with paints, pens and materials. As well as being a creative way to represent the self, they were subsequently used when taking “group photos”, functioning almost like masks.

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  • Anonymous illustrated poetry – young people in the project kept creative journals throughout, with permission their anonymised journal entries, poetry and stories became sharable digital content that could represent the project, without relying on the faces of the young people involved.
  • Voiceover-led, faceless videos – guided by popular TikTok content like “A day in the life” and “get ready with me”, young people created short films that took the viewer through part of their day, without the presence of their face. Some used a friend to help them create a film filmed entirely from behind them, showing only the back of their head, others created “Point Of View” videos filmed with camera facing forward, focussed on their surroundings. The young creatives then experimented with voiceover, incorporating poetry, monologues and autobiographical storytelling. One young person reflected: “I actually think it made my writing more interesting, because I knew I wouldn’t just be reading it to camera. That made me think more about why the words mattered.”

By removing the pressure of visual identity, these young artists created space for deeper reflection and imaginative freedom.


Doing it differently

As cultural organisations, we have an opportunity to re-evaluate our assumptions around representation. Marketing strategies that rely on recognisable, smiling faces aren’t just outdated - they’re misaligned with how many young people now navigate digital spaces. We also need to resist the temptation to treat privacy concerns as barriers to creativity. Instead, consider what happens if we treat them as creative constraints that push us to experiment with form, abstraction, and collaboration. This shift is both a safeguarding imperative and an artistic opportunity.

Things you can do:

  1. Think beyond the face. Presence doesn't always require identity - consider hands, objects, environments, textures.
  2. Collaborate with young people. Don’t just ask for permission - co-create visuals and narratives that reflect their preferences and creative choices.
  3. Use abstraction and metaphor. A blurred photo or a symbol can communicate emotion just as powerfully as a portrait.
  4. Rethink consent conversations. Let young people set the terms. Offer ongoing choices, not one-off forms.
  5. Reframe privacy as potential. Work within limits to spark new artistic ideas - not restrict them.

Why not start here:

  • Start a conversation with your youth group: What does it mean to be seen without showing your face? What would a “faceless” selfie/self-portrait look like? What belongings, songs, colours, places represent you?
  • Start a conversation with your team or board: Rethink your approach to youth visibility online. Who is the representation really for? What assumptions are embedded in your image choices?
  • Forward thinking: Embed the production of marketing materials into your project/workshop plan. A shift away from action shots and smiling faces, and toward co-curated materials with young people, naturally requires more time and attention – consider how you might incorporate activities designed specifically for generating marketing material – perhaps this opens up channels for new creative practice!

Other tips:

  • Review your image consent policies - are they ethical and child-centred, not just legally compliant?
  • Audit your website and social media - whose images are you using, and why?
  • Experiment with faceless creative methods – distorted, edited or scenic photography, illustration, POV video, or anonymised storytelling.
  • Consult young people - ask how they want to be represented (or not) – parental consent is legally essential but consent from the young person is just as important.
  • Challenge the assumption that visibility = success - find other ways to show impact.

Useful Resources

A New Direction are inviting you to a joined-up conversation for all cultural educators to improve practice around safeguarding CYP’s images in the era of Generative AI across the sector.

If you would like to join the working group please email culturalsector@anewdirection.org.uk and come to our roundtable on Monday 1 December 2025 – Safeguarding in the age of AI.

Molly Wilson is a theatre maker and researcher exploring creative practices with and for young people. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further or wish to connect about youth-led digital practice and representation, feel free to reach out.

Instagram and TikTok – @p.h.diva
YouTube - @mollywilson_performance
Email – molly.wilson@cssd.ac.uk
LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/molly-wilson-11bab41b4

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