Students and teachers are now contending with a rising tide of sexually explicit deepfakes and other troubling forms of what tech watchdogs call “non-consensual intimate imagery,” or NCII. Generative AI and social media deserve a lot of the blame, according to the new “Deep Trouble” report from the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Students and teachers told the Center’s researchers that a “substantial amount” of explicit imagery, both authentic and deepfake, was circulated during the 2023-24 school year. The images often depict “individuals associated with their school … with the primary perpetrators and victims being students,” the report warns.
Female students are more likely to be depicted in the imagery and they, along with LGBTQ+ youth, expressed less confidence that their schools know how to prevent or respond to the growing problem. Teachers also told researchers that few schools have policies and procedures to combat sharing of real or fake NCII.
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“This unfortunately leaves many students and parents in the dark and seeking answers from schools that are ill-equipped to provide them,” the report contends. “When schools do respond, they focus heavily on imposing serious consequences on perpetrators without providing support to victims.”
In other words, while perpetrators have faced expulsion, long-term suspensions and even referrals to law enforcement, victims have not as regularly been offered counseling or help removing imagery from social media. The report, therefore, encourages schools to provide more support to students who are victimized.
That assistance includes ensuring students know how to report NCII confidentially and how to remove the images with resources such as “Take It Down,” from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Parents, meanwhile, want more information about deepfakes and NCII so they can team up with schools to better educate students about the harm the imagery causes. Parents also want to be involved in developing school disciplinary policies.
