A troubling trend has emerged in schools across the United States, with young students falling victim to the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “nudify” apps that have the power to create fake pornography of classmates.
“Nudify” is an umbrella term referring to a plethora of widely available apps and websites that allow users to alter photos of full-dressed individuals and virtually undress them. Some apps can create nude images with just a headshot of the victim.
Don Austin, the superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, told Fox News Digital that this type of online harassment can be more relentless compared to traditional in-person bullying.
“It used to be that a bully had to come over and push you. Palo Alto is not a community where people are going to come push anybody into a locker. That doesn’t happen. But it’s not immune from online bullying,” Austin said.
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“The differences, I think, are worse. Now your bully can be completely anonymous. You don’t even know where it’s coming from,” he continued.
Austin noted that conversations with mental health professionals have unearthed another troubling trend wherein kids who have become the victim of online bullying can become “addicted” to searching for negative content about themselves.
“They’re looking, monitoring the exact place where the harm is coming from,” he said.
Growing up in the 1980s, Austin recalled how a student could do something stupid on a weekend and peers would whisper and talk about that individual on a Monday.
Flash-forward to the early days of the internet when Austin was starting his professional career: at this point, students could post pictures and comments about classmates and display that to the entire school.
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“We’re at a place now where you can be doing nothing and stories and pictures about you are posted online. They’re fabricated. They’re completely made up through AI and it can have your voice or face. That’s a whole other world,” he told Fox News Digital.
Last August, the office of the San Francisco City Attorney filed a lawsuit accusing 16 “nudify websites” of violating nonconsensual intimate images and child abuse material laws. In the first half of 2023, the websites in question were visited over 200 million times.
The parent companies of the apps that create these hyper-realistic “deepfake pornography” images have largely remained unscathed by state legislation. However, at least one state, Minnesota, is considering a bill that would hold them accountable for certain image generations.
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Though technology will likely always outpace policy, Austin stressed the importance of ongoing collaboration and communication between educators, parents, and students to redefine acceptable behaviors and provide support for those affected by AI and social media.
Nearly a decade ago, Austin fostered a working relationship with SmartSocial founder Josh Ochs, whose organization hosts weekly live events that teach parents how to keep their kids safe online.
Ochs told Fox News Digital that in a growing number of cases, these apps are subjecting school-aged teens to humiliation, harassment and online sexual exploitation. The creation of these images can also lead to legal ramifications.
“Kids these days will upload maybe a headshot of another kid at school and the app will recreate the body of the person as though they’re nude. This causes extreme harm to that kid that might be in the photo, and especially their friends as well and a whole family,” he told Fox News Digital.
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Ochs emphasized the importance of parents having open and frequent dialogues with their children about online safety and the dangers of these apps, while also taking an interest in their personal lives.
Though some parents push to give their kids greater autonomy and privacy, Ochs said parents should have access to their children’s devices and social media accounts (via the passcode), just as they would have a spare set of keys to a car.
“Before you give your kids a phone or social media, it’s time to have that discussion early and often. Hey, this is a loaner for you, and I can take it back at any time because you could really hurt our family,” he said.
The U.S. Senate in February unanimously approved a bill by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would make it a federal crime to publish, or threaten to publish, nonconsensual intimate imagery, including “digital forgeries,” also known as deepfakes, crafted by AI.