Two Florida middle school students were arrested in December and charged with third-degree felonies for allegedly deepfaking the nudes of their classmates.report by wired Two boys, aged 13 and 14, have been charged with allegedly using an unnamed “artificial intelligence application” to generate explicit images of other students “between the ages of 12 and 13,” the newspaper reported. It cites a police report. The case could be the first criminal prosecution in the United States related to AI-generated nude images.
They were charged with third-degree felonies under a 2022 Florida law that criminalizes the distribution of deepfake sexually explicit images without the victim's consent. Both the arrest and indictment are believed to be the first cases of their kind in Japan related to the sharing of AI-generated nudes.
Local media reported the incident after students from Pinecrest Cove Academy in Miami, Florida, were suspended on December 6 and reported to Miami-Dade police.according to wiredthey were arrested on December 22nd.
Minors creating nude or explicit AI-generated images of other children is an increasingly common problem in school districts across the country. However, other than the Florida case, I have never heard of any cases that resulted in arrests. There is currently no federal law addressing non-consensual deepfake nudes, so states are independently grappling with the impact of generated AI on issues of child sexual abuse material, non-consensual deepfakes, and revenge porn.
Last fall, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on AI, requiring government agencies to report on banning the use of generative AI to generate child sexual abuse material. Congress has not yet passed any laws regarding deepfake pornography, but that could change soon. The House and Senate introduced legislation this week, known as the DEFIANCE Act of 2024, and the effort appears to have bipartisan support.
Nearly every state now has laws addressing revenge porn, but only a handful have passed laws to varying degrees to address sexually explicit images generated by AI. Victims in states without legal protection have also filed lawsuits. For example, a New Jersey teen is suing a classmate for sharing fake AI nudes.
of Los Angeles Times It was recently reported that the Beverly Hills Police Department is currently investigating an incident in which a student allegedly shared an image that “featured a student's real face superimposed over an AI-generated nude body.” However, a state law that prohibits “the unlawful possession of obscene material that depicts a person under the age of 18 engaged in or imitating a sexual act” does not include AI-generated images. It's unclear whether a crime was committed because it wasn't explicitly mentioned, the article said.
The local school district voted Friday to expel five students involved in the scandal. LA Times I will report.