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The anticipation of seeing whether the hairspray held on school photo day was high. My kids got my curly hair, you see. And on a 32-degree day, and PE in the mix, you gotta damage the ozone to guarantee a photo worth paying $58 for.<\/p>\n
Finally, I get to first position in the car line. The boot opens, the bags get thrown in with no regard for my laptop, Woolies bags full of dinner hopefuls or the picnic blanket that has never seen a picnic. The seatbelt click is my cue to commence the Q&A \u2013 but on a typical day \u2013 there are more Qs than As.<\/p>\n
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Getting your picture taken with classmates is a rite of passage.Marija Ercegovac<\/p>\n
\u201cHow were the school photos? Did you stand in the back again?\u201d I ask proudly, already knowing the answer. I was a front-rower my entire tiny life. Having kids stand at the back probably means more to me than it should.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a class photo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally? Why not?\u201d I ask, surprised I got an answer and shocked by the surprising answer. Someone must have thrown up or maybe the teacher lost it because the kids were being difficult. Either way \u2013 there\u2019s gossip, and I\u2019m here for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to use AI to make it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Stupefied.<\/p>\n
Evidently, the photographer took individual photos of each student in standing and seated positions and will string them together using AI to create a group one. Individual photos stitched together to create a moment that never happened, rather than capture one that did.<\/p>\n
When I ordered the photos, I was expecting a captured memory. Not a fabricated one.<\/p>\n
The class photo is a rite of passage. The boredom of waiting in line, calculating whether outgrowing your uniform could mean you\u2019ve moved back a row. Hiding gum. Tapping your classmate\u2019s shoulder and holding back tears of laughter as they look around, annoyed.<\/p>\n
Related Article And then remembering all of that whenever you see the photo at your parents\u2019 place and wonder why no one told you to pull your socks up.<\/p>\n These collective moments are what make school life so memorable. Sure, they\u2019re mundane. But mundane maketh the memories.<\/p>\n The idea that the 2026 class photo would show them together when they never actually were bothers me. Why couldn\u2019t a group photo just be taken? They were together already; their parents went to a lot of trouble to put every hair in place, tie perfect ribbons, run late to work. If AI was going to be used, why not go all in and save parents that hassle? We could have sent in our favourite photo of our child \u2013 and the photographer could have used AI to put them in uniform \u2013 then strung those together.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve just won a small victory in the new social media ban for kids. Now we\u2019re showing them that it\u2019s OK to fake a photo?<\/p>\n In discussion, other parents pointed out much bigger concerns. Where were these images being stored? Which AI tool were they being fed into? Would their likeness turn up somewhere unexpected? My rising anger was interrupted by an Instagram notification of a like on a photo of my children. Which got me thinking \u2013 what\u2019s the point of even getting angry when I have no idea where Meta stores the hundreds of photos I once so thoughtlessly shared of my kids.<\/p>\n Just like my after-school car rides, I have more Qs than As. But what I do know is that on the great list of challenges that could do with AI brain power to solve, a class photo just ain\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n Marie El Daghl is a communications specialist with Chasing Albert and a mother of two.<\/p>\n Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Mimi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/d8acee7b3cf555b7ada75a008856ba9eaf3644ef.jpeg\")
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