One night in early December, the phones of Radnor High School students started buzzing. Some freshmen girls were getting disturbing messages: A male classmate, they were told, had made pornographic videos of them.<\/p>\n
When one of the girls walked into school the next morning, \u201cshe said everyone was staring at her,\u201d said her mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter\u2019s identity. \u201cAll the kids knew. It spread like wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n
So-called AI deepfakes \u2014 pictures of a real person manipulated with artificial intelligence, sometimes with \u201cnudify\u201d features that can convert clothed photos into naked ones \u2014 have become the talk of school hallways and Snapchat conversations in some area schools.<\/p>\n
As Pennsylvania lawmakers have pushed new restrictions cracking down on deepfakes \u2014 defining explicit images as child sexual abuse material, and advancing another measure that would require schools<\/a> to immediately alert law enforcement about AI incidents \u2014 schools say they have no role in criminal investigations, and are limited in their ability to police students off campus.<\/p>\n But some parents say schools should be taking a more proactive stance to prepare for AI abuse \u2014 and are failing to protect victims when it happens, further harming students who have been violated by their peers. <\/p>\n In the Council Rock School District, where AI-generated deepfakes were reported last March, parents of targeted girls said administrators waited five days to contact the police about the allegations and never notified the community, even after two boys were charged with crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey denied everything and kind of shoved it under the rug and failed to acknowledge it,\u201d said a mother in Council Rock, who also requested anonymity to protect her daughter\u2019s identity. \u201cEverybody thought it was a rumor,\u201d rather than real damage done to girls, the mother said.<\/p>\n Council Rock spokesperson Andrea Mangold said that the district \u201crecognizes and understands the deep frustration and concern expressed by parents,\u201d and that a police investigation \u201cbegan promptly upon the district\u2019s notification.\u201d<\/p>\n Mangold said current laws were \u201cinsufficient to fully prevent or deter these incidents,\u201d and that the district was \u201climited in what we know and what we can legally share publicly\u201d due to student privacy laws.<\/p>\n In Radnor, parents also said the district minimized the December incident. A district message last month said a student had created images of classmates that \u201cmove and dance,\u201d and reported that police hadn\u2019t found evidence of \u201canything inappropriate\u201d \u2014 even though police later said<\/a> they had charged a student with harassment after an investigation into alleged sexualized images of multiple girls.<\/p>\n A Radnor spokesperson said the alleged images were never discovered and the district\u2019s message was cowritten by Radnor police, who declined to comment.<\/p>\n The district \u201capproaches all student-related matters with care and sensitivity for those involved,\u201d said the spokesperson, Theji Brennan. She said the district was limited in what it could share about minors.<\/p>\n In both Radnor and Council Rock, parents said their daughters were offered little support \u2014 and were told that if they were uncomfortable, they could go to quiet rooms or leave classes early to avoid crossing paths with boys involved in the incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just felt like no one believed her,\u201d the Radnor mother said of her daughter. <\/p>\n How an investigation unfolded in Radnor<\/p>\n In Radnor, five freshmen girls first heard they were victims of deepfakes on Dec. 2, according to parents of two of the victims who requested anonymity to protect their daughters\u2019 identities. They said boys told their daughters that a male classmate had made videos depicting them sexually.<\/p>\n In a Snapchat conversation that night, one boy said, \u201c\u2018Nobody tell their parents,\u2019\u201d a mother of one of the victims recalled. Reading her daughter\u2019s texts, \u201cit quickly went from high school drama to \u2018Wow, this is serious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The girls and their parents never saw the videos. In an email to school officials the next morning, parents asked for an investigation, discipline for the students involved, and efforts to stop any sharing of videos. They also asked for support for their daughters.<\/p>\n School administrators began interviewing students. The mother of one of the victims said her daughter was interviewed alone by the male assistant principal \u2014 an uncomfortable dynamic, given the subject matter, she said.<\/p>\n One mother said the principal told her daughter it was the boys\u2019 word against hers, and that he was \u201cso glad nothing was shared\u201d on social media \u2014 even though no one knew at that point where videos had been shared, the mother said.<\/p>\n The principal said the school had no authority over kids\u2019 phones, so the girl and her family would need to call the police if they wanted phones searched, the mother said.<\/p>\n Brennan, the Radnor spokesperson, said that administrators contacted Radnor police and child welfare authorities the same day they spoke with families. \u201cThe district\u2019s and the police department\u2019s investigations have found no evidence that the images remain or were shared, posted, or otherwise circulated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The male classmate acknowledged making videos of the girls dancing in thong bikinis, the parents said police told them. But the app he used was deleted from his phone, and the videos weren\u2019t on it, the police told them.<\/p>\n The parents didn\u2019t believe the admission.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think a 14-year-boy would report a TikTok video of girls in bikinis,\u201d said one of the mothers, who said her daughter was told she was naked and touching herself in videos.<\/p>\n The police told parents they didn\u2019t subpoena the app or any social media companies, making it impossible to know what was created.<\/p>\n Radnor Police Chief Chris Flanagan declined to comment, as did the Delaware County<\/a> District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n In a message sent to district community Jan. 16 announcing the end of the police investigation, officials said a student, outside of school hours, had taken \u201cpublicly available\u201d photos of other students and \u201cused an app that animates images, making them appear to move and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo evidence shared with law enforcement depicted anything inappropriate or any other related crime,\u201d the message said. <\/p>\n A week later, the police released a statement saying a juvenile was charged with harassment after an investigation into \u201cthe possible use of AI to generate non-consensual sexualized imagery of numerous juveniles.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked why the district\u2019s statement had omitted the criminal charge or mention of sexualized imagery, Brennan said the statement was also signed by Flanagan, who declined to comment on the discrepancy.<\/p>\n Brennan said the district had provided ongoing support to students, including access to a counselor and social worker.<\/p>\n Parents said the district had erred in failing to initiate a Title IX sexual harassment investigation, instead telling parents they needed to file their own complaints.<\/p>\n \u201cThey kept saying, \u2018This is off campus,\u2019\u201d the mother said. But \u201cmy daughter could not walk around without crying and feeling ashamed.\u201d <\/p>\n Parents say girls were \u2018not supported\u2019 in Council Rock<\/p>\n In Council Rock, a girl came home from Newtown Middle School on March 17 and told her mother a classmate had created naked images of her.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Excuse me? Nobody contacted me,\u2019\u201d said the mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter\u2019s identity. She called the school\u2019s principal, who she said told her: \u201c\u2018Oh my God, I meant to reach out to you. I have a list of parents, I just have not gotten to it\u2019 \u2014 you know, really downplaying it.\u201d<\/p>\n The mother and other victims\u2019 parents later learned that administrators were alerted to the images on March 14, when boys reported them to the principal. But instead of calling the police, the principal met with the accused boy and his father, according to parents. Police told parents they were contacted by the school five days later. The Newtown police didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Mangold, the Council Rock spokesperson, declined to comment on the specific timing of the school\u2019s contact with police.<\/p>\n Police ultimately obtained images after issuing a subpoena to Snapchat; in total, there were 11 victims, the parents said.<\/p>\n Through the Snapchat data, police learned that a second boy was involved, the parents said, which made them question what was created and how far it spread.<\/p>\n Parents said they believe there are more pictures and videos than police saw, based on what their daughters were told \u2014 and because the delayed reporting to police could have given boys an opportunity to delete evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what the fear of our daughters is \u2014 like, what was actually out there?\u201d said one mother, who also requested anonymity to protect her child\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n Manuel Gamiz, a spokesperson for the Bucks County<\/a> district attorney, said Newtown Township Police had charged two juveniles with unlawful dissemination of sexually explicit material by a minor. Gamiz said the office couldn\u2019t provide further information because the case involved juveniles.<\/p>\n Juvenile cases are not public, but victims\u2019 parents said both boys were adjudicated delinquent. While the boys had been attending Council Rock North High School with their daughters, the district agreed to transfer both after their cases were resolved, according to a lawyer representing four of the parents, Matthew Faranda-Diedrich.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can you let this person be roaming the halls?\u201d said Faranda-Diedrich, who said it took formal demand letters in order for the district to transfer the boys.<\/p>\n He accused the district of mishandling the incident and \u201cprotecting the institution\u201d rather than the victimized girls.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re putting themselves above these students,\u201d Faranda-Diedrich said.<\/p>\n Parents said school leaders warned their daughters against spreading rumors, and never sent a districtwide message about the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cThese girls were victims,\u201d one of the mothers said, \u201cand they were not supported.\u201d<\/p>\n She and the other mothers who spoke to The Inquirer said the incident has deeply affected their daughters, from anxiety around what images may have been created \u2014 and how many people saw them \u2014 to a loss of trust in school leaders.<\/p>\n Some of the girls are considering switching schools, one mother said.<\/p>\n State law changes and a debate around education about deepfakes<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania, AI-generated sexual images of minors are now classified as child sexual abuse material<\/a> and people can also be charged with digital forgery<\/a> for creating them.<\/p>\n Those changes came in 2024 and 2025, after a scandal over deepfakes of nearly 50 girls at a Lancaster private school.<\/a><\/p>\n Another bill that passed the state Senate unanimously in November would require school staff and other mandated reporters to report AI-generated explicit images of minors as child abuse \u2014 closing what prosecutors had cited as a loophole when they declined to bring charges against Lancaster Country Day School for failing to report AI images to the police. That legislation is now pending in the House.<\/p>\n Schools can also do more, said Faranda-Diedrich, who also represented parents of victims in the Lancaster Country Day School incident. He has pressed schools to conduct mandated reporter training for staff. \u201cBy and large they refuse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Radnor, parents urged the school board at last week\u2019s committee meeting to make changes.<\/p>\n Luciana Librandi, a parent of a freshman who said she had been \u201cdirectly impacted by the misuse of generative AI,\u201d called for timelines for contacting police following an AI incident, safeguards during student questioning, and annual education for students and parents on AI.<\/p>\n Others called for the district to communicate the criminal charge to families, to enforce existing policies against harassment, and to independently review its response to the recent incident.<\/p>\n Radnor officials said they are planning educational programming on the dangers of making AI images without a person\u2019s consent. <\/p>\n There\u2019s some debate on whether to teach children about \u201cnudify\u201d apps and their dangers, said Riana Pfefferkorn, policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, who has researched<\/a> the prevalence of AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Alerting kids to the apps\u2019 existence could cause them \u201cto make a beeline for it,\u201d Pfefferkorn said.<\/p>\n