Deepfake P●rn: White Hall Students' Citations
Deepfake P●rn: White Hall Students' Citations
Female students fall victim to sexual exploitation, cyberbullying
South Arkansas Reckoning spent some of the summer investigating crime on public school campuses during the 2023-24 school year.
We previously looked at the Sheridan School District.
Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, South Arkansas Reckoning obtained police reports from the White Hall Police Department about incidents at schools in the district.
An April 24, 2024, report particularly stood out involving male teenagers, child pornography, Artificial Intelligence and several female victims.
Students are using AI to superimpose student faces onto nude images.
Police brought in a male student for questioning.
The student said he had attended church camp on the weekend of April 19, 2024, and stayed at someone's house.
While he slept, a friend went on his phone accessed his Instagram and Facebook accounts and pulled several photos of females.
From there, the friend used a website called “Clothesoff” to generate nude photos, according to the incident report.
The male student told police he attempted to delete the website tabs on his phone.
The pictures were also sent through Snapchat, according to the incident report.
The student showed his friends the pictures when he returned to school. He was given a citation for Possession of Sexually Explicit Digital Material Arkansas Statute 5-27-609.
The police also interviewed the boy's friend who alledgedly created the photos. His story was different.
The student said he did stay the weekend at a residence with the friend. They left to go look at an abandoned house. He let the other friend borrow his phone for an hour.
That student said he was unaware of the pictures until they returned to the church and had a meeting with a potential victim.
He was given the same citation as the other student. Both were to appear in juvenile court.
The Child Abuse Hotline was called.
Deepfake porn
What do you call the actions of the White Hall students? Deepfake porn.
A person uses AI to create a nude or sexual image of a person showing something they haven't said or done.
A situation similar to the one in White Hall occurred in Australia in June.
“About 50 girls from Bacchus Marsh Grammar in Melbourne are right now dealing with the aftermath of having their images used to create fake AI-generated pornography, which was shared on Instagram and Snapchat,” according to Australia's ABC News.
Similar situations have occurred in Spain, Brazil, Texas and New Jersey.
Last week, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed a “first-of-its-kind lawsuit” against 16 of the world’s largest websites that create and distribute nonconsensual AI-generated pornography.
The lawsuit was filed after AI-generated nude images of 16 eighth-grade students circulated among students at a California middle school.
The suit wants these websites removed from the internet, injunctive relief and civil penalties.
Parents, step up
A 2023 study by Security Hero reported that:
The total number of deepfake videos online in 2023 is 95,820, representing a 550% increase over 2019.
Deepfake pornography makes up 98% of all deepfake videos online.
99% of the individuals targeted in deepfake pornography are women.
It now takes less than 25 minutes and costs $0 to create a 60-second deepfake pornographic video of anyone using just one clear face image.
Gov. Sarah Sanders is attempting to limit cell phones in Arkansas public schools, but who steps in when the school bell rings? Parents.
In a January 2024 report by The International Educator, author Nigel Winnard wrote: “The online jurisdiction and influence of a school ends when that student leaves campus and switches on their mobile phone - out in the world, or at home, or when they are out with friends. Schools cannot be expected to be there when students are online gaming, or when they are connecting through social media late at night. And it is at those times when teenagers are at their most vulnerable to that urge to push boundaries, and to pressures of bad actors in their online lives.”
Winnard also wrote parents must take charge and ask their children about their online lives.
“If you are a parent, we need you to step up before your daughter, or your daughter’s teacher, or another vulnerable young person you know is the target of the next traumatic deepfake case,” Winnard wrote. “If ever there was a time for parents to have an open, honest, and real conversation with their children about ethically responsible and respectful digital citizenship, it is now.”
Read the incident report from the White Hall School District.
Read our other stories about online dangers and teenagers:
