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A new word鈥斺�渄eepfakes鈥濃�攕lipped effortlessly into the lexicon of school administrators last fall in states across the country. Schools discovered that boys, as young as 14, had used artificial intelligence to create fake, yet lifelike, pornographic images of their female classmates and shared them on social media sites like Snapchat.

Students aren鈥檛 the only targets. Early last year, the athletic director of Pikesville High School in Baltimore used an off-the-shelf, $1,900 software program to create a fake audio clip of his principal. The fake principal could be heard spouting harmful and racist stereotypes about his Black and Jewish students. The real principal was absolved of any wrongdoing, but the district placed him at another school, following strong reaction from Pikesville鈥檚 students and parent community to the fake clip.

The spike in the misuse of AI-generated deepfakes has stunned school districts, which now鈥攖hrough a mix of amended school policies, technological safeguards, and training鈥攁re trying to catch up and curb this kind of behavior.

鈥淒eepfakes are the next iteration of bullying,鈥� said Jennifer DiMaio, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the Valley Stream Central High School district in Valley Stream, N.Y. Since the start of this school year, DiMaio and school leaders in her district 鈥済rappled鈥� with the right approach to teach students about the responsible use of technology. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone is going to be immune to this, because everybody has a device and everybody has access to AI, and it鈥檚 generating at a rate much faster than our comprehension of it,鈥� she added.

DiMaio鈥檚 fears aren鈥檛 unfounded. A nationally representative survey of more than 1,100 teachers, principals, and district leaders conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in September showed that 67 percent of them believed that their students had been misled by a deepfake. While only 9 percent of educators reported being misled themselves, more than half the respondents were somewhat or very concerned that students would use AI to generate deepfakes that featured their peers or educators.

The data also showed that schools haven鈥檛 adopted a uniform approach to training their staff on the dangers of deepfakes: Over half reported in the survey that they鈥檇 received no training at all or that the quality of it was poor鈥�7 percent said that the training they鈥檇 received was good.

Turning AI into a consumer product has led to a 鈥淐ambrian explosion鈥� of existing problems, said Jim Siegel, a senior technologist for The Future of Privacy Forum, a think tank that works on privacy issues. Schools have always dealt with issues like sexual harassment via nonconsensual imagery, cyberbullying, or sexting, where students are both perpetrators and victims. The AI-generated deepfakes have accelerated these harms. The threats to 鈥減hysical safety, to reputation, now have an audio-visual update,鈥� added Siegel.

Most districts, when faced with a deepfake incident, have meted out expulsions, suspensions, and firings (in the case of the athletic director in Baltimore). In most cases that involved pornographic deepfakes, districts turned to law enforcement to investigate. It鈥檚 vital, experts say, for schools to emphasize that students could face disciplinary, and even legal, action if they create deepfakes intended to harass and bully.

Some schools have taken it a step further than punishment and created 鈥渓earning opportunities鈥� around the disruptive incidents.

Jason Allemann, the principal of Laguna Beach High School in California, a panel this past March, soon after he learned that at least one male student had used AI to create 鈥渋nappropriate images鈥� of girls and shared it with other male students. The panel dealt with issues of privacy, appropriate AI usage, and the legal and ethical concerns around sharing content.

鈥淲e鈥檙e educating the students who made the bad decision, but we鈥檙e also bringing everybody else along with us in those conversations to build awareness and make sure that everybody understands the expectations, not only at school, but just, I think, morally [of] doing something right when you have all these tools at your fingertips,鈥� Allemann said.

Students need to be coached about how to respond from the moment they receive an explicit photo or a piece of hurtful information, said Laura Tierney, the founder of The Social Institute, a for-profit organization that creates school-based programs to encourage positive use of social media.

When confronted with a deepfake, Tierney said schools can focus on what students should do and not solely on what they shouldn鈥檛. This can mean flipping the script from 鈥淒on鈥檛 share that deepfake鈥� to more positive options, like 鈥淚f you鈥檙e scared of reporting this explicit picture to a caregiver or parent, report it to the counselor,鈥� Tierney said.

How creators of 鈥榙eepfakes鈥� are disciplined sends an important message

School districts have been quick to launch investigations into deepfake incidents, as they鈥檝e come to light. But the results of these investigations have varied.

The Beverly Hills Unified school district five middle school students in March for creating and sharing explicit deepfake images of their female classmates, which first surfaced the previous month. At Laguna Beach, it鈥檚 unclear what, if any, disciplinary measures were taken against the creator or creators because individual student disciplinary information is protected by privacy laws.

In some cases, the victims have felt like too little was done鈥攁nd too late.

Dorota Mani, the mother of 15-year-old Francesca Mani, found out in October last year that AI-generated nude images of her daughter and other girls were being circulated at the high school in Westfield, N.J. In the year that followed, Mani and Francesca have been vocal about how the school mishandled the incident and the lasting, harmful impact these deepfakes will likely have on those female students.

Mani said she is worried about how the image itself could cause reputational damage without people knowing the context of it.

鈥淵ou know how many colleges could find out about her picture floating around, without her even knowing, and reject her. You know how many job offers will not be offered because of that picture? And many girls, unfortunately, are in that boat,鈥� Mani added.

Westfield High School temporarily suspended one boy over the incident, to The New York Times.

A spokesperson for the school would not confirm any disciplinary details, saying 鈥渨e cannot provide specific details on the students involved or any disciplinary actions taken, as matters involving students are confidential.鈥�

Mani was also critical of how the school handled the incident when the deepfakes first came to light: The girls pictured in them were identified by the school when they were called down to the principal鈥檚 office over the intercom, but the identities of the boys behind the deepfakes are not publicly known.

Meanwhile, Francesca still goes to school with the boys who made the deepfakes of her and other girls, Mani shared.

Mani said she鈥檇 urged the Westfield school district in late 2023 to include language on AI-generated deepfakes in their schools鈥� policies. In June, the district amended its policies to 鈥渋ncorporate AI technology into the definition of cyberbullying and expand the infractions in the code of conduct,鈥� said Superintendent Raymond Gonzalez, in an email to 澳门跑狗论坛.

Gonzalez also said in the email that the Westfield school board adopted an acceptable-use for AI in October of this year, which recommends appointing an AI coordinator and committees at the district level, to oversee the use of AI tools at each school. The board adopted the resolution over a year after the Westfield High deepfakes first emerged, a timeline that is unacceptable to Mani: 鈥淥ur school failed us.鈥�

Mani has worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on legislation that will better protect young people from the harmful impacts of deepfakes. She鈥檚 lent her support to the Defiance Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The proposed legislation would give victims the right to take civil action against those who create, distribute, and receive 鈥渄igital forgeries.鈥�

Twenty states have passed bills that aim to make AI-generated imagery, with the faces of real adults or children, a part of statutes that criminalize the creation and possession of such deepfakes, according to by consumer-advocacy firm Public Citizen.

Find a careful balance between accountability and empathy

Over the past year or so, more schools have been proactive about tweaking their student codes of conduct and disciplinary policies to include deepfakes. It鈥檚 not just past incidents that鈥檚 spurred them鈥攊t鈥檚 also the threat of what administrators don鈥檛 know about how AI might develop and how accessible it鈥檚 going to be to students.

A nationwide survey of students, teachers, and parents by the Center for Democracy & Technology showed that 40 percent of students were aware of a deepfake associated with someone they know at school, compared with 29 percent of teachers in the know; 17 percent of parents surveyed said the same.

This chasm of awareness means that deepfake incidents are likely underreported, the report says.

For some school leaders, an amended code of conduct should signal consequences to anyone planning to manipulate AI at the cost of a peer or an educator.

Shari Camhi, the superintendent of the Baldwin Union Free school district in Baldwin, N.Y., said that in updated school board policies, student-created deepfakes of their peers or educators will lead to suspension. But the suspension will also be followed or preceded by other 鈥渞estorative鈥� measures 鈥渢o make the students understand the terrible thing that they did and to be able to make amends to the person they did it to,鈥� Camhi said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important for the student to have a path to come back to school. In situations where a longer suspension is necessary, we allow for a shortened suspension if they also attend counseling for a specified duration. That鈥檚 necessary when someone does something so egregious,鈥� she added.

Policies need to focus on the needs of victims, too

As administrators create new disciplinary guardrails around deepfakes, experts caution that schools may be paying inordinate attention to dealing with the perpetrators, while leaving victims vulnerable.

鈥淭he latest amendments to Title IX frame deepfake imagery as sexual harassment. I think where schools might fail is if they treat [deepfakes] as a violation of acceptable-use policy, and not as sexual harassment,鈥� said Siegel from the Future of Privacy Forum.

The new amendments to Title IX, though, have been challenged in 26 states and by conservative groups, who鈥檝e supported at least eight different lawsuits that prevent these regulations from taking effect. In other places, though, these regulations are in full effect.

It鈥檚 possible that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, the regulations, and the inclusion of deepfakes, may be dropped if the administration decides to completely withdraw them.

Camhi鈥檚 district started working on a media literacy curriculum in 2020-2021 school year, which is now required for students in grades 6-12 as part of its English/language arts and social studies coursework. Students are pushed to think critically about the information they receive, triangulate data sources, and judge if the information is credible enough to share. Camhi hopes her students will apply the same critical-thinking skills to information they find online.

Camhi said that both teaching and non-teaching staff also went through three hours of professional development in media literacy at the start of the next school year. 鈥淲e need to backtrack too to train people who didn鈥檛 get the skills when they were in school,鈥� said Camhi.

Schools need to move forward with the assumption that students will be tempted to create or share unsuitable deepfakes about their peers or teachers, experts say. It鈥檚 their responsibility to teach students how to make the right choice.

The Social Institute鈥檚 Tierney collaborated with educators and students to create a peer-to-peer learning platform that鈥檚 used in schools across the country. It focuses on posing 鈥渆ssential questions鈥� to students during different class periods, like science, social studies, or English, which are then also shared with their parents. These questions could quiz students about the differences between a real and an AI-generated picture or ask them what鈥檚 their role if a deepfake related to their school is being shared on social media.

鈥淭hese open-ended questions spark curiosity, problem-solving, and huddling and discussion. I think those are the important conversations that can help a school community tackle this topic that is new and ever evolving,鈥� Tierney said.

Signs that this conversational or 鈥渆ducational鈥� approach is working are difficult to pin down. Tierney said that teachers who use this curriculum report higher levels of empathy in students toward each other and their teachers.

Camhi, for her part, is trying to gauge how students have responded to the district鈥檚 programming on AI.

The 鈥渂iggest check mark鈥� for her is when students report they now think more critically about the information they receive.

Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center鈥檚 work.