As teens await sentencing for nudifying girls, parents aim to sue school - Ars Technica

Overview

As teens await sentencing for nudifying girls, parents aim to sue schoolvar abtest_2146692 = new ABTest(2146692, 'click');

Teens will be sentenced Wednesday after admitting to creating AI CSAM.

Details

Two teens behind one of the earliest US high school deepfake scandals will be sentenced this week, but the case is unlikely to resolve families’ concerns about the school’s significantly delayed response.

Earlier this month, the 16-year-old boys admitted to using AI tools to “nudify” images of 48 female classmates at Lancaster Country Day School in Pennsylvania, along with 12 other young female acquaintances.

The incident could have been caught early, after the school learned of the images following an anonymous report to a state-run tipline. But officials—who at the time weren’t legally required to act—failed to notify parents or police for six months, as the number of victims continued to grow. In total, the boys created at least 347 AI-generated sexualized images and videos before they were stopped.

Although adults have gone to prison for similar AI crimes, the legal landscape for teens who increasingly target classmates by creating and sharing AI CSAM remains unclear. Since all but one victim was under 18, the teens face 59 felony counts of sexual abuse. They also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex abuse of children and possession of obscene material.

On Wednesday, a juvenile court will decide the consequences, a sentencing that could reverberate through high schools—and even middle schools—across the country. A local Lancaster news outlet noted that sentencing will be based on recommendations from the juvenile probation department, which typically “focuses on rehabilitation and includes supervision until age 21 if it serves the public interest.”

For parents of some victims, the students’ sentencing will be viewed as a stepping stone in their fight to hold the school accountable. On Monday, Nadeem Bezar, an attorney and partner at Kline & Specter, told USA Today that he is “representing at least 10 impacted families in a lawsuit against the school, which they intend to file after perpetrators’ sentencing.”

In response to the scandal, the school temporarily shut down. Soon after, both its head, Matt Micciche, and the school board’s president, Angela Ang-Alhadeff, resigned. The school now seems eager to move on, with Bezar and one parent telling USA Today that the school “updated its reenrollment contracts to discourage students and families from publicly speaking poorly of the school.” That seems to have frustrated parents of victims, who view the incident as a moral failure that the school appears to be trying to cover up.

“The school knows that they have this deepfake issue, and they all of a sudden add this clause to their enrollment contracts,” Bezar said. “That to me seems a little disingenuous and unfair, and it doesn’t seem like someone’s apologizing.”

The current head, Emile Kosoff, told USA Today that “we continue to prioritize the health and well-being of our students.”

“Our deliberate and intentional approach aims always to ensure that our school community remains informed, continues to heal, and moves forward together,” Kosoff said.

Lancaster Country Day School was first notified of the problem after one of the teen boys seemingly accidentally sent a nudified image of a classmate to the wrong Discord chat. A concerned student saw it and reported the image through a state tip line, which sent an alert to the school early as November 2023.

Rather than act on the images, Micciche, the school board president, did nothing, parents alleged, until more information emerged in May 2024. The next month, the school filed a Child Line report, but law enforcement did not launch a criminal investigation until parents eventually got the tip.

Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams concluded that Micciche was not obligated to report the images because of a “loophole” that lawmakers immediately sought to close, USA Today reported. That loophole excused schools from mandatory reporting requirements for child-on-child abuse. Parents and lawmakers are pushing to close the loophole to ensure schools must report any AI nudes after the first detection.

Some parents think Micciche was scapegoated for a problem that goes beyond his individual judgment as an educator and school head. In a Change.org petition created without Micciche’s knowledge, parents argued that he should be rehired and urged parents suing to dismiss any lawsuits against the school.

For victims, the harms have been extensive, and some families plan to continue fighting for justice beyond whatever consequences the teen boys who made the images will face. They think the school should have done more to stop the images sooner, and they’re hoping a court will agree.

Each high school victim had to go through “binders of photos,” marking their own faces to help cops track the total number of victims, a local news outlet reported. These images disturbingly sexualized the girls’ social media photos, tainting cherished memories and raising fears that the AI-generated CSAM could continue spreading online.

“This case exemplifies the dark side of modern technology and social media,” Attorney General Sunday said. “The conduct involved a weaponization of technology to victimize unsuspecting children who had photos online. It goes without saying that the impact on the victims is nothing short of devastation.”

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Key Takeaways

• As teens await sentencing for nudifying girls, parents aim to sue schoolvar abtest_2146692 = new ABTest(2146692, 'click');

• Teens will be sentenced Wednesday after admitting to creating AI CSAM

• Two teens behind one of the earliest US high school deepfake scandals will be sentenced this week, but the case is unlikely to resolve families’ concerns about the school’s significantly delayed response

• Earlier this month, the 16-year-old boys admitted to using AI tools to “nudify” images of 48 female classmates at Lancaster Country Day School in Pennsylvania, along with 12 other young female acquaintances

• The incident could have been caught early, after the school learned of the images following an anonymous report to a state-run tipline