A bully doesn't need a real embarrassing photo of you anymore. AI can invent one.
That's the reality schools across the country are quietly scrambling to catch up with. Students are using AI to generate fake, nonconsensual images and videos of their classmates -- and it's not stopping there. Teachers are being targeted too.
What's Actually Happening
Education Week spoke with principals and policy experts about what's actually happening on the ground:
It's spreading fast. What used to be an edge case is now common enough that states are passing laws specifically naming AI deepfakes in their cyberbullying statutes. Illinois, for example, now directs all schools to update their cyberbullying policies to explicitly address deepfake cases.
There's now a federal law. The Take It Down Act requires platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a verified request.
One principal's response stood out. Rather than treating this as a purely disciplinary issue, he holds "reentry meetings" -- sitting the student who made the fake alongside the student it was made of, before either returns to class, to rebuild trust rather than just hand out punishment.
The Bigger Takeaway
The bigger takeaway from the people actually dealing with this: punishment alone isn't the fix. Kids need to know exactly who to report this to, and schools need a plan before it happens, not after.
If you're a parent, this is worth a conversation with your kid this week -- not because they're doing it, but because odds are they already know someone who has.