High school students, parents warned about deepfake nude photo threat

Multiple Los Angeles-area school districts have investigated instances of "inappropriate," artificial intelligence-generated images of students circulating online and in text messages in recent months.

Most recently, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced that it is investigating "allegations of inappropriate photos being created and disseminated within the Fairfax High School community," the school district told Fox News Digital in a statement. "These allegations are taken seriously, do not reflect the values of the Los Angeles Unified community and will result in appropriate disciplinary action if warranted."

A preliminary investigation revealed that the images were allegedly "created and shared on a third-party messaging app unaffiliated with" LAUSD. The school district said it "remains steadfast in providing training on the ethical use of technology – including A.I. – and is committed to enhancing education around digital citizenship, privacy and safety for all in our school communities."

AI apps and websites have the ability to superimpose photos of people's faces onto AI-generated nude photos, or in some cases, videos.

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Titania Jordan, chief parent officer at social media safety company Bark Technologies, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the recent incident within LAUSD "is indicative of a larger problem affecting society: the use of AI for malicious purposes."

"Deepfakes — and specifically shared, fabricated non-consensual intimate images and videos — aren’t just like fun TikTok or Snapchat filters. These deceptively realistic media can have devastating real-life consequences for the victims who did not consent for their likeness to be used," she said. "Complicating matters is the fact that the technology behind them is getting better every day. It’s already to the point where it can be hard to tell the difference between an authentic video and a deepfake."

The announcement comes after similar instances within the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) and Laguna Beach Unified School District (LBUSD).

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Earlier this month, Dana Hills High School Principal Jason Allemann sent a letter to parents notifying them of AI-generated nude images of students circulating online, FOX 11 Los Angeles reported. The images circulated online and in text messages, according to the outlet.

"These actions not only compromise individual dignity but also undermine the positive and supportive environment we aim to foster at LBHS," Allemann said in the letter, according to FOX 11.

Ariana Coulolias, a senior at Dana Hills, told FOX 11 that the images looked "really real."

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"It’s just kind of scary to see stuff like that happen," Coulolias told the outlet.

In February, middle school students informed Beverly Hills school administrators that inappropriate AI images were going around Beverly Vista Middle School. 

"We want to make it unequivocally clear that this behavior is unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our school community," the district said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital at the time. "Although we are aware of similar situations occurring all over the nation, we must act now. This behavior rises to a level that requires the entire community to work in partnership to ensure it stops immediately." 

The district noted that misusing AI in such acts may not technically be a crime, as the laws are still catching up with the technology.

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"[W]e are working closely with the Beverly Hills Police Department throughout this investigation," the district said. "We assure you that if any criminal offenses are discovered, they will be addressed to the fullest extent possible."

Titania Jordan with Bark Technologies noted that even Taylor Swift recently became a victim of "this violation of privacy" stemming from " viral 4chan challenge" using AI deepfake technology. "Ms. Swift may have brought major attention to this issue, but it’s been around for a while, and it happens more often than most people realize. Unfortunately, law enforcement and legal action have been slow to catch up to this technology because of how new it is," Jordan said.

She added that "[s]tudents, families, and schools need to work together to educate their community about how dangerous and unacceptable it is to create deepfakes without permission."

"It’s not just the potential harm from fake nudes, either — deepfake technology can also be used in scams, heists, and even to influence political behavior," Jordan explained.

Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.