TikTok slammed as AI videos of murder victim go viral
TikTok/ITVMom of James Bulger, victim of one of the most infamous murders in British history, has slammed TikTok after finding AI videos of her son explaining his own murder to viewers.
It’s now been over 30 years since two-year-old James Bulger was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by two 10-year-old boys in Bootle, England.
James’ mom, Denise Fergus, has now slammed the social media app TikTok after coming across AI videos where a picture of her son has been made look alive to tell the story of the murder.
Denise argued that the clips circulating on TikTok are exploiting his killing and have forced her to relive the horror all over again.
James Bulger’s mom opens up about “disturbing” AI videos
Denise told the Mirror: “It is bringing a dead child back to life. It is beyond sick.”
In the video, an AI-generated toddler says: “Hello, my name is James Bulger.”
He goes on to narrate details from the abduction and murder, with some of the shots set near railway tracks – which was where James’s body was found.
Denise told the Mirror the most upsetting thing was watching one clip that bore a striking resemblance to a photo of her son, with his lips moving.
She said: “It is one thing to tell the story, I have not got a problem with that. Everyone knows the story of James anyway.
“But to actually put a dead child’s face, speaking about what happened to him, is absolutely disgusting.”
Mourizal Zativa/UnsplashAlong with the video of James are similar videos of other child murder or kidnapping victims, including Madeleine McCann and Baby P.
The family pleaded to have TikTok remove the videos
Denise’s husband said he managed to track down one of the producers behind the clips and pleaded for them to be taken down.
But he received a reply saying: “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.”
TikTok said it had removed several videos flagged with them and taken action against the accounts, adding: “We want TikTok to be a welcoming place for everyone, and there is no place on our platform for disturbing content of this nature.
“Our Community Guidelines are clear that we do not allow synthetic media that contains the likeness of a young person. We continue to remove content of this nature as we find it.”