If your child hasn’t encountered a deepfake involving someone from their school, chances are, someone they know has. Deepfakes are AI-generated images, videos, or audio that look or sound real but are entirely fabricated.
A recent survey by the Center for Democracy & Technology reveals that 40% of students and 29% of teachers have been aware of deepfakes involving members of their school community in the past year. More disturbingly, 15% of students and 11% of teachers know of sexually explicit deepfakes related to their school.
The real-world impact of these fakes was brought to light when I served as an expert in a case where a teacher was accused of producing nude deepfakes of students. My research indicates that victims of such content online face heightened risks of depression, suicide, and sexual assault. These images can haunt victims’ future personal and professional lives, appearing in online searches.
However, schools are often unprepared, with the survey showing that a majority of students (57%), teachers (62%), and parents (67%) report a lack of school policies on deepfake nonconsensual imagery. Schools typically react after incidents occur, focusing more on punishment than on support for victims.
What can parents do? With schools lagging in preventive measures, parents must step up by educating their children about the serious consequences of creating or interacting with intimate deepfakes.
Educating Children on the Dangers
Even if deepfakes aren’t genuine, the damage they cause is very real. Lindsay Lieberman, an attorney specializing in deepfake victim representation, notes, “The technology is so advanced that it looks like it is my client, and the harm can be just as profound as if it were their actual image.”
Victims can suffer significant psychological harm, including distress, anxiety, depression, and even PTSD. Socially, they might lose friends or see their reputations tarnished, which can affect their willingness to participate in online environments crucial for education or career. The financial burden includes costs to scrub these images from the internet.
Dr. Devorah Heitner, an author focused on digital upbringing, suggests that parents use empathy to teach kids about these harms, asking them to imagine the impact if they were the victims. “All young people recognize that we don’t want to be part of victimizing others. We don’t want to make other people feel less safe,” Heitner emphasizes.
Thus, educating children about not only the ethics but also the severe repercussions of engaging with deepfakes is crucial in this digital age.