A school community in New Jersey was shocked when images of nude female students began circulating at Westfield High School. Even more shocking, someone had actually created pornographic photos using AI images. Sophomore boys allegedly acted suspiciously in mid-October, and the girls took note. When questioned, one boy reportedly told the truth.
Now, families are concerned about how the images could affect the teenage girls' futures.
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At least one student is accused of creating the images.
The images reportedly began circulating via text group chats, according to the Wall Street Journal via the New York Post. The mother of a female student told the Journal that her daughter said boys were acting "weird" around October 16.
Female students pressed to find out what was going on, and finally, on October 20, one student spoke up about the photos he had allegedly seen.
Administrators reportedly told some of the girls their photos had been altered.
The AI-created photos are known as "deepfake." According to Merriam-Webster, deepfake is "an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said."
These kinds of images are often used for malicious intent, including blackmail.
Dorota Mani told the Journal that her 14-year-old daughter, Francesca, was a victim of the deepfake scam, and she is worried about how this could follow her around. "I am terrified by how this is going to surface and when. My daughter has a bright future and no one can guarantee this won't impact her professionally, academically or socially."
Some families went to the police.
Two of the four families who went to police over the alleged photos told the Journal their daughters hadn't actually seen their deepfake images.
Westfield High School Principal Mary Asfendis confirmed in an email to parents on October 20 that the alleged images circulated at the school. Still, she believed they had been deleted, the Journal reported via the Post.
"This is a very serious incident," Asfendis wrote. "New technologies have made it possible to falsify images and students need to know the impact and damage those actions can cause to others."
Deepfake is serious.
It violates anyone's privacy whose images are altered to create something they are not. "To be in a situation where you see young girls traumatized at a vulnerable stage of their lives is hard to witness," Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle told the Journal via the Post.
She said that as Westfield's first female mayor, she must be an advocate for all women and girls.
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Lawmakers are working to outlaw deepfake pornography.
Legislation is on the table in Congress to help protect victims of deepfake and go after its creators, ABC News reported in late September.
"We know that weaponized deception can be extremely harmful to our society," said Representative Yvette Clarke, D-NY, who authored the proposal told the network. "This bill is meant to take us into the 21st century and establish a baseline so we can discern who is intending to harm us."
It is unclear if any students involved in the Westfield incident will be punished.
