The Call No Parent Ever Wants to Get

Imagine for a minute...

Your phone rings...

You hear your child's voice, crying, terrified, begging for help!

Then a stranger takes over the line and demands money for their safety.

Your heart stops. You panic. Willing to do anything to protect them.

But what if that voice… wasn't really your child?

What if it was an AI-cloned voice, perfectly mimicking them?

The emotional trauma of just imagining this is too overwhelming.

Do we know who's who anymore?

I didn't exaggerate the above scenario. It's already happening.

Both online and mainstream media highlight multiple incidents where parents were scammed using AI-cloned voices of their children. Families are being deceived and children have unknowingly become the faces or voices of digital scams.

Celebrities too are rushing to courts, trying to protect their voices, faces and names from being used in fake videos that promote everything from investment scams to shady products.

Almost every week, there's another report of someone being tricked by a deepfake video of a well-known figure asking for money or support.

Recently, a deepfake of one of India's most prominent businessmen surfaced, urging people to invest in a "special scheme."

If adults can get fooled, imagine how vulnerable our children are?

Are we really impressed?

A few days ago, I saw a viral video of an influencer admitting proudly that the person in his latest post wasn't really him, it was an AI-generated clone. His face and voice had been recreated so accurately that even I couldn't tell the difference.

The video had over 25,000 likes and thousands of shares, which seems to me that people weren't alarmed, rather they were entertained, maybe even impressed by how perfectly a real person can be replaced online.

For me, it was worrying.

What we must teach our children

As parents, we can't be passive. We need to have open, ongoing conversations with our children about what's real and what's not.

Here's what you can do:

• Talk about deepfakes: Explain that not everything they see or hear online is real, including people and voices
• Share examples: Show them articles and videos of how scammers are misusing technology to cheat people
• Protect information: Teach them never to share personal details outside the family
• Create a family safe word: Make a family code or a question that only family members know, to verify identity in an emergency

Most Important: Don't scare them, Educate them.

Schools need to step in too

These conversations shouldn't just be limited to the dinner tables.

Schools must include digital safety and AI literacy into their curriculum, not as an optional subject, but as an essential life skill. Workshops, awareness sessions and open classroom discussions should be part of every school digital literacy program.

Children must be taught to question, verify and think critically before believing what they see online.

The time is now

Research highlights that as AI evolves, scams are rising quickly and the way things are progressing AI isn't going away, it's only getting smarter, faster and more convincing.

Our best defense is education, awareness and constant communication with children. We can't stop technology, but we can prepare our children to navigate it wisely.

As adults we may grasp the risks, but our children need to be taught that "what they see can't always be trusted".

Unfortunately, we're reaching a point where trust itself is being redefined.

How long does it take to clone a voice?

I asked one of the AI tools, How much time does it take to clone someone's voice?

Actual Answer Below:

Actual Time to Clone a Voice (as of 2025)

With current AI voice synthesis tools (like ElevenLabs, Play.ht, OpenVoice, or Meta Voicebox), a realistic clone can be made in 30 seconds to 2 minutes once you have a sample of 10–30 seconds of clear speech.

Some newer systems can generate instant clones in real time — you upload a short clip, and within under 60 seconds, the model can start producing speech that matches tone, pitch, and emotion.

With today's AI tools, cloning a voice can take less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.