Although many people have begun to use and rely on AI more and more in recent years, it’s not always for good. Sure, it can quickly summarize a lengthy article or help you compose an email to your boss, but like everything else, there’s a dark side: People can use the technology to create images of anything and anyone they want to. These images, also known as deepfakes, can be created to cause harm. A teacher in England is speaking out after a young elementary school student used artificial intelligence to create disturbing pornographic images of her and two other teachers at the school.
The teacher, who understandably requested to use a fake name, spoke with iNews about the incident. She said that in her 20-year career, “I have never been more disturbed than I was in 2021.”
The teacher explained that she had been teaching at an elementary school for five years and had a student she called a “strange character.” This wasn’t the first time she was teaching the girl. The teacher noticed the girl “seemed older than her age,” adding “she knew a lot more than the others.”
Still, the teacher was shocked when the girl said to her one day, “I’ve seen you online.” Apparently, the girl looked her up on Google and found a picture. “I’m not sure what the picture was, but she had somehow managed to track me down,” she shared with the news outlet.
A few weeks later, parents complained to the school’s head teacher that an “inappropriate video” was sent to their kids in a WhatsApp group. The child who shared the video didn’t make it — the minor had been “coerced” by the video’s creator to send it.
It didn’t take long to find out who made the video; it was the same girl who told the teacher she’d found her picture online.
“She had taken photos of my face from the school website, along with images of two other teachers, and somehow created a deepfake porn video to make it look like we were involved in a threesome,” the teacher explained to iNews.
Of course, some parents complained. The student who had shared the video was “mortified.” Both she and her mother apologized to the teacher.
But the girl who made the video “showed no remorse.” She allegedly laughed during meetings with her parents and the school. “What was most disturbing was how incredibly young she was: eight or nine years old,” the teacher said.
Despite being featured in the video, the teacher never got to see it. By the time the school was notified, all the children had deleted it. The other teachers who were featured in the video didn’t want to escalate things, so the teacher was all alone in making a case about the video.
Making matters worse, the school didn’t have the teacher’s back. Her concerns were dismissed, even after officials found out the child made other disturbing videos. The woman went back to teaching the class but ended up leaving the school a year later.
She told her story to highlight a disturbing trend, warning that use of deepfakes “will only become more common.”
In 2024, a male student was expelled from Salesian College, a Catholic school in Melbourne, Australia, after he created sexually explicit deepfakes of a female teacher, Australia’s ABC News reported. However, the incident was handled differently.
“We have ensured support and pastoral care is provided to the teacher. We continue to stand beside her and support in all ways possible,” principal Mark Ashmore said.
The Independent Education Union told the outlet it had “provided support for several teachers who were made victim of AI-generated fake pornography by students in their schools.”
“These have been devastating events for the staff involved and their families,” a representative for the group said.
Although schools have put educational programs for students about cyber safety and being respectful, the union says it’s not always enough. Schools need to be teaching students about responsibly and legally using AI and social media.
“These discussions should take place as part of a broader discussion around respect for others, in particular respect for women.”
