Schools are focusing heavily on setting harsh penalties for students who share real or deepfake sexually explicit images online, but they are not giving enough attention to victims depicted in the images, said a report released Thursday from the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that promotes civil rights in technology.
CDT found that 71% of teachers said students at their school who were caught sharing deepfake "non-consensual intimate imagery," or NCII, were referred to law enforcement, expelled from school, or suspended for more than three days during the 2023-24 school year.
The report is based on nationally representative surveys of 6th-12th grade public school teachers and parents and 9th-12th grade students.
Only 36% of teachers, however, said their school has a fair process in place that adequately supports victims of deepfake NCII. Some 5% of teachers said their school has provided resources to victims to have images removed from social media or other online platforms.
“Schools’ hyperfocus on imposing serious consequences on perpetrators, including handing students over to law enforcement, does not alleviate a school of its responsibility to address sexual harassment under Title IX,” a federal anti-sex discrimination law, said Elizabeth Laird, director of the Equity in Civic Technology Project at CDT, in a statement.
“Without meaningful efforts toward prevention, everyone involved is worse off," Laird added.
Deepfakes are videos, photos or audio recordings that seem real but have been digitally manipulated to show someone doing or saying something they have not actually done. Deepfakes created with artificial intelligence can seem realistic and can be difficult to distinguish between real and fake content.
Nationally, about 15% or 2.3 million high school students reported hearing about deepfake NCII that depicts individuals at their school during the 2023-24 school year, according to the CDT report.
“Sadly, in the past school year, the rise of generative AI has collided with a long-standing problem in schools: the act of sharing non-consensual intimate imagery,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, CDT president and CEO, in a statement. “In the digital age, kids desperately need support to navigate tech-enabled harassment, and schools hold important power to help curb these harms.”
Teachers and staff are also victims
Although the impact of real and fake images of students was the focus of the report, researchers also found that 43% of teachers who have heard about deepfake NCII being shared at their school said school staff members — including teachers and administrators — were depicted in these types of images last school year, compared to 58% of teachers who said that a student was a victim.
Other findings from the report include:
- Deepfake NCII is most commonly shared through social media, according to 68% of teachers and 61% of students. The next most common methods of sharing, according to teachers, are through text messaging and chat platforms.
- Students who are male, LGBTQ+, or have disabilities have more awareness of the variety of NCII, including authentic and fake images.
- Female students were more likely than male students to be depicted in deepfake NCII, according to teachers and students.
- Some 60% of teachers report they have not heard of their school or school district sharing policies and procedures with teachers about addressing authentic or deepfake NCII.
- Parents have concerns, too. Some 76% of parents who know of authentic or deepfake NCII depicting individuals associated with their child’s school in the past school year have concerns about their child’s privacy. That's compared to the 57% of parents who have not heard of either.
The report cautions that schools can face legal and financial consequences for failing to have campuses free from sexual harassment.
"Taking urgent and decisive action to curb these harms is crucial, and one that carries significant legal consequences for perpetrators and schools themselves," the report said.
One recommendation CDT's report offers is for schools to update their Title IX policies to make it clear that NCII and other harassing online behaviors creates a hostile environment for students at schools. Administrators then need to communicate these policies to teachers, students and parents.
Schools should also develop preventative measures around NCII through classroom lessons, in digital citizenship initiatives, and through sexual harassment awareness efforts.
Additionally, schools need to add supports for students victimized by NCII, including having resources explaining how to remove harmful online content. The report recommends that to support student victims, schools should have staff trainings on trauma-informed responses, including the importance of confidentiality and danger of victim-blaming language.
Parents should also be included in the creation of NCII policies and procedures, CDT said.
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