A schoolboy who created 50 AI images of his female classmates has forced the closure of his private school in the US.
On Monday, enraged parents forced the cancellation of classes at Lancaster Country Day School, a fee-paying school in Pennsylvania. Parents were calling on the school leaders to resign or they would kick-off a lawsuit seeking criminal charges. They accused the school of having failed to report the harmful images.
A single male student is said to have generated pornographic images of 50 of his female classmates using AI technology, according to Lancaster Online. The photographs came to the attention of the principal in November 2023 after a student reported the deepfakes anonymously through a state-run school portal.
The parents have alleged that the principal failed to act, which allowed more students to be targeted for several more months. It wasn't until mid-2024 that police were informed and the student was arrested. His phone was seized as part of the police investigation to trace the origins of the images.
But parents were calling for more justice, accusing the school of failing to uphold its mandatory responsibilities to report suspicions of child abuse. In a court summons, they threatened legal action unless the heads of school resigned within 48 hours. The headmaster and school board president resigned late on Friday, but parents say they dragged their feet and the resignations were issued two days after the deadline, Lancaster Online reported.
The story has sparked a huge debate on social media, with redditors discussing whether it would be possible to regulate AI to the point these kind of cases would become a brief blip in human history.
One redditor gave their perspective as a mandated reporter, someone who must report any suspicions of child abuse they encounter in their job. They said: "As a mandated reporter, I'd have to report the images, fake or not. My yearly training states that it is not up to me to determine how serious it is. If I see something, I'm supposed to say something directly to CPS if it involves the caretaker or the police if it involves someone other than the caretaker. Not my boss, not my boss' boss. That goes for every employee at that school.
"There are some states that allow for reporting to an administrator who is then required to report to the police or CPS within 24 hours. However, mandated reporters can report anonymously if they're afraid of retribution at their place of employment. "The purpose of mandated reporting is to identify suspected abused and neglected children as soon as possible so that they can be protected from further harm."
" That did not happen. And I blame everyone in that building for sitting around and watching it happen to more kids when the police could have used actual software instead of rumourmill to catch the kid. Anything outside of 24 hours is unacceptable and should be punished for complicity in the distribution of CSA."
On regulating the technology, one person wrote: "Can't stop the signal. When a 12 year old with a PC older than him can do it with open source models, regulation can't really prevent it."
Another summed up the case, alleging that the school failed to act because the image was not a "real" picture of child exploitation. "They [the principal] literally went vigilante and left abusive material circulating in the school instead of doing the diligence required of literally the thing they're doing nothing about because it's actually a hyper-realistic photoshop of underaged sexual exploitation and not a "real" picture of underaged sexual exploitation," the redditor said.
Another took the opportunity to say the deepfake pornography should be treated the same way as any "real" image of child abuse, suggesting the legislation doesn't exist in its current form. They said: "Child depression, suicides and not to mention cyber bullying is on the rise. How much more can a child handle? Ai deepfake child porn should be penalized like any other crime."
Others used the opportunity to introduce a little humour into the depressing story. One said: "They can use my nude picture for abstinence campaigns. I'm sure it will be very effective."