The girls are now finding themselves in awkward and uncomfortable situations with one another… this has created an environment of confusion, isolation, and shame amongst the very girls who need support and solidarity the most’
One of the world’s largest religious schools has come under fire from parents after AI deepfake porn was created of their daughters and shared in a group chat. A number of girls at The Friends’ School – the largest Quaker school in the world – located in Tasmania, Australia, had pictures of them used to make deepfake pornographic material, Tasmania Police has confirmed. A deepfake is an image or video in which a real person’s face or body has been edited using AI software to create a false depiction of them. In cases such as this, the tech is used to create still or video pornography. Parents of two of the children involved say they were told by police that 21 victims in total had been identified, as per the ABC. Five boys have since “left the school” after being discovered as creators and disseminators of child pornography.
Parents also told the Australian national broadcaster that they were notified individually of the crimes against their daughters, and that most parents would not be telling their girls about the abuse.
One mum told the ABC that she first became aware of the child porn scandal through “chatter” about the incident from her daughter in early March. She said a senior staff member at the school called her to tell her that her daughter’s image was involved on April 1, after police became involved. The member of staff at The Friend’s School reportedly told the Tasmanian mum that her most parents had decided not to tell their children they had been identified in the material and that that seemed the best course of action. The mum said: “I felt I was being encouraged not to tell my daughter. “We’re talking about sexual assault, about child pornography, and they’re taking our girls’ voices away from them. “Our girls have a right to know they’ve been involved in things like this, and they have a right to be educated on how to handle it.”
A second parent echoed the same tale, telling the ABC she was “gobsmacked” when the school contacted her to confirm her daughter’s image had been reproduced by AI to create deepfake pornography. She also said that she was told most parents were not going to tell their daughters.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said, adding: “I got off the phone and called my husband, and he was like ‘what the heck’.” She described the phone call from The Friends’ School as cautious and lacking in detail. As per reports, both sets of parents spoke to police who told them AI-altered photos of the girls had been shared amongst the boys in a group chat, with images of their daughters seemingly lifted from social media to create the deepfake child pornography. At first, the AI-generated images were fully clothed, one mum was told, before they then progressed to nudity and pornography. Although the boys in question have since left the school, parents of victims say their daughters have been left “not knowing who to talk to” for support after the sexual assault. One parent said: “She doesn’t know if any other girls have been told. So they’re at school not talking about it.” The other added: “It’s almost like there’s an element of shame there.” As a result, one mum has written to Tasmania’s education minister Jo Palmer, telling her: “The girls are now finding themselves in awkward and uncomfortable situations with one another.
“They are uncertain about what they can say and to whom, particularly as they do not want to inadvertently disclose information to students who have not been informed by their parents. “This has created an environment of confusion, isolation, and shame amongst the very girls who need support and solidarity the most.”
Ms Palmer said she could not “imagine the distress this situation has caused” the girls and their families, and wrote back to the parents to advise her she had referred The Friends’ School to its regulator, the Non-Government School Registrations Board. In an email to parents last week, school principal Esther Hill claimed the school had acted “promptly, in line with our child safety obligations”. She said families of students identified and impacted had been informed in a “careful and supportive manner”, and that communication had “been guided by police and expert advice”. She said the school had undertaken a review of its “processes, policies and actions” and was seeking “external input” to ensure best practice going forward. “Our focus remains on ensuring that all affected young people feel safe, supported and respected,” the email said. She did not comment on alerting the girls to the sex crimes carried out against them or the support to ensured they feel safe at school or out in the world at large.
Tasmania Police said no charges had been laid, but “the five youths being dealt with in accordance with the Youth Justice Act”. Sofia Weerts from the Victorian Women’s Trust said: “It is damning evidence of an ongoing imbalance of cultural values, whereby the lives, experiences and dignity of women and girls are deemed less worthy of respect.” She added: “To truly eradicate the scourge of technology-facilitated abuse against women and girls, we first have to interrogate the society in which such misogyny has the ability to flourish, and ask, is this the future we want for women and girls?” In 2024, the Australian federal government introduced new laws banning the sharing of non-consensual deepfake adult pornography. The crime now carries a maximum penalty of seven years behind bars.
The Friends’ School has been contacted for comment.
