The mother of James Bulger has hit out at a 'sick' TikTok clip which used AI to bring her deceased child back to life.
In 1993, James Bulger was just two-years-old when he was abducted, tortured, and murdered by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged ten.
Now, a disturbing AI video has emerged on social media which shows Bulger. His mother, Denise Fergus, has furiously demanded that the platform remove the video. She told The Mirror: "It is bringing a dead child back to life. It is beyond sick."
The videos on TikTok have reopened the deep wounds felt by Bulger's family some thirty years after he was killed.
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Clips online show an AI-generated image of Bulger saying: 'Hello, my name is James Bulger'.
Cartoon-style clips also share details of Bulger's abduction and murder in 1993. Many of the images show an avatar of Bulger by train tracks. This refers to the fact that his body was discovered by train tracks.
Denise, 55, told the Mirror: “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. It is bringing a dead child back to life. It is wrong."
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She added: “To see his little face moving when he is no longer here, it is disgusting. It all should be taken down and stopped.
"It is not fair on the people who have lost children, or lost anyone. We are not just saying take James down, we are saying take it all down. It is beyond sick. Who can sit there and think of such a thing?"
It's not just Bulger either, as videos featuring other dead or missing children have also emerged online. TikToks have been posted of Madeleine McCann, Baby P, and Rhys Jones - though none of the clips have a content warning on them.
Stuart Fergus, the husband of Denise, said: “When they first started appearing I thought it was a one-off. But then a few people started messaging me telling me about it, friends and family.”
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Stuart reached out to one of the accounts that was posting the videos asking for them to take the videos down. He received a response 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.”
Stuart said: "I don’t think these people understand the upset they are causing. Companies like TikTok should be held accountable. When you report it [to them] things should happen but it doesn’t.”
Kit Roberts