To be concerned about a new fresh hell for female school pupils?

[Villamariawine]

I’ve name changed for this as I don’t want the assumption to be I am one of the parents. I’m not. But I am the mother of a 6th former DD.

From The Times today - it is behind a paywall so I’ve included some of the salient points. I’ve removed the poll because frankly I’d be aghast if anyone thinks I am being unreasonable.
Two private schools are at the centre of a criminal investigation into the alleged making and sharing of deepfake pornographic images. Police are investigating claims that the deepfakes were created at a boys’ school by someone manipulating images taken from the social media accounts of pupils at a girls’ school.
The schools are in the same area of the country. Detectives became involved seven weeks ago when staff at the girls’ school alerted police and social services to reports that deepfake images and videos were in circulation at the boys’ school. About a dozen girls are thought to have been victims.

The report goes on to say:

Both schools are spending tens of thousands of pounds on crisis management PR firms and London law firms to manage the fallout. It is understood police asked the schools not to undertake internal inquiries or disciplinary measures during their investigation.

And

Police declined to comment on claims that they had been unable to recover phones and computer equipment of potential value to the investigation.

And

A spokesman for the boys’ school said: “Were any allegation to be received, the school would always take all appropriate steps to ensure the matter was fully and thoroughly investigated, including through making reports to, and taking advice from, the relevant external agencies and authorities. The school will always fully co-operate with any police investigation or directions.”

I’m not interested in which schools these are (The Times has not named them) and for the sake of the girls, please don’t name them. I’d wager that the lack of progress into some sort of justice for the girls is why The Times knows about the situation.

My AIBU is that this apparently happened at the start of May. Exams will have taken place, pupils will have left, important choices will have had to be made and these poor girls have had to deal with this on top of everything and the perpetrators are seemingly facing no consequences almost two months on. The Police have moved very quickly on other matters, why not this one? It is a criminal offence to even make deepfake images of a child, let alone distribute them. If there is nothing amiss, why are PR firms and Law Firms involved? Why would the girls school need to hire them? Surely their first thought is for the welfare on their pupils who are involved through no fault of their own? These images could follow them around forever if they were created of the girls when they were over the age of 18. Was nothing learned by schools after ‘everyone’s invited?’ about trying to cover up bad behaviour?

I’m dismayed that girls and their parents are being subjected to this new fresh hell.

It’s very disappointing that it seems the boys school has gone into protect mode rather than supporting an investigation and punishment.

The 3 things that anger me about this are 1. The technology is freely available for the general public to use to be able to create deepfakes in the first place. 2. That boys with this much privilege have decided to do this. 3. The fact the schools have called in PR companies and lawyers which shouts that they are trying to cover it up and possibly start whipping out NDAs to shut it down.
I fear for my daughter in this shitty world.

It’s happening all over. Take your pick from articles here https://www.google.com/search?q=melbourne+school+ai+porn&rlz=1C9BKJA_enAU811AU811&oq=melbourne+school+ai+porn&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTINCAEQABiDARixAxiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQLhiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCDY5MzFqMWo3qAIKsAIB&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1

I think it’s too early to criticise the boys school. The police are investigating whether this is where the pictures originated, so I’d rather not jump the gun and point the finger at them just yet.
It is a horrible new trend and will undoubtedly not go away

These reports are becoming ever more common and it’s terrifying.

Of course they would hire a law firm. Not sure what the problem is with that

Yes it’s disgusting; is it the school or the parenting of these boys. It’s the parenting. I suspect that there are some serious criminal offences being done by these boys and I would throw the book at them.

You'd have to be bloody stupid not to hire a law firm in the circumstances. These are very serious allegations.

It is very likely to be criminal offending. Making images like this could easily be a sex offence. What kind of parenting do these boys have? Actually creating this stuff is not an accident or a mistake of judgment. It is potentially criminal. This is not teenage high jinks.

Here's the sharetoken link

www.thetimes.com/article/8f0a7282-9328-49df-9826-260111e06690?shareToken=e82c4b6a87874a005bd64c6b3380e2f7

Very recently I was told about this happening at a co-ed boarding school. I will not name the school as I heard it 2nd hand, although the person who told me had no reason to fabricate something like this for me. It's the sort of school that would spend a fortune on crisis management PR and very expensive London lawyers to keep a lid on it. Would the school alert the police? You must be joking. An internal matter which warranted a 2 day suspension apparently.

I suspect there's a much bigger story here than just these 2 schools.

So no OP you are not being 'that' parent. I don't think it even matters what time of year it happened, it's bad at any time. Girls getting the shitty end of the stick yet again,

First they need to determine whether these images ever existed.

Then they need to determine the content of the images.

Then they need to determine who made the images.

Then they need to determine who circulated the images.

There's a lot of questions to be answered first. We should not be throwing the book at anyone for rumours.

My boys are at an all boys school. They share a few whatsapp groups with the sister girls school. All the catfishing and problems on the groups chat have been by girls to girls. I have made the boys come off all the groups and Snapchat.

There was an article yesterday about falling birth rates around Europe, apparently we are not having enough children to replace people dying.
As the mother of two DD’s in their 20’s I can understand why. Who would want to have sex with the sorry examples of manhood we have now. They all seem to be spoilt entitled babies even in their 20’s and 30’s.

Of course. But creating pornographic images of girls under 16 and circulating them is serious. The intent behind this kind of offending is not “I made a teenage mistake”. This sounds planned. A strong case for prosecutions I think

Rapes, boys in their toilets and now deep fake porn.

And they wonder why people are pissed off.

Of course the schools need to protect themselves, from what I’ve read in OP the school isn’t the one at fault, it’s the pupils in question (the boys to be clear). The school, rightly so, will want to create distance between themselves and the boys in question. One does not cause the other.

Of course, this will be a fresh new hell for all students regardless of sex when someone realises it's just as easy to make deepfake porn of boys too.

It’s a private school. Independent schools spend a fortune on PR and make a really big deal of their individual ethos as well as prestige to attract families, thus parents are paying the school to instil a set of values, not just to study for exams. When the DC commit a crime the school has failed in its promise to instil its values. So yes the school does have to take its share of responsibility.

Whilst it is an awful incident, and certainly needs to be dealt with, I do think you are being unreasonable about what you allege re the police and the school. Not everything that doesn’t go as seamlessly or quickly as someone thinks it should is because something is wrong/unfair or there is someone to blame or someone has to be at fault.

The police have to follow procedure and there may well be perfectly legitimate reasons for-what seems to you- slow progress (identifying who did what, for example) that you are unaware of. I assume you aren’t an expert in the investigation of these sorts of crimes- neither am I- but I do think there is a possibility that these cases could be quite complex. If the police don’t do things by the books, they risk the CPS not being able to bring charges, for vital evidence being deemed inadmissible or for attempted prosecution to fail. I imagine the parents of the young men involved may well be able to afford good legal advice, so they would likely find any failures to exploit. I don’t think that would help any of the young women affected, frankly. Surely, better a little slower and done properly, than rushed so people like OP “see” that justice has been done, according to their perception of appropriate timetable?

You also don’t know how seriously or otherwise the school have taken it. Getting legal advice and hiring a PR firm are not unexpected to me and don’t indicate that they believe there is no issue/ that they aren’t co-operating with the police. For a start, you don’t know a)if the equipment has not been recovered as there is no comment; and b) if it is true who is responsible for that failure. If the items were never in the school’s possession, it might be that the pupils/their families have somehow prevented the police accessing them. I highly doubt the school would deliberately try to destroy evidence it was known to have- opening themselves up to prosecution is far more damaging than the pupils being the only ones breaking the law. I’m not clear, really, that either school have been trying to cover anything up or are stating nothing is amiss. They may not have announced it- nor would I have expected them to- but I don’t see any evidence from what you have posted that they are saying there is nothing to investigate? Perhaps it is in the article you quote?

Neither school can really comment on what they have or have not done because of the ages of those involved and because of the police investigation. You have no idea what consequences those involved have faced, but other than suspension (and you won’t know if they have or have not been), I’m not sure what you expect the school to do- name the alleged perpetrators and have them flogged at dawn on the playing fields, recorded for your perusal, perhaps? The police investigation and any subsequent convictions will result in consequences for those proven to be responsible. A full investigation, CPS decision/charges being brought and a full trial completed was never going to happen in just a few months. I don’t really understand why you think it would?

I think that it is entirely understandable that the school would want to look for legal advice, given that the young people were in their care (especially if boarders) and quite possibly using school equipment or it/internet. Why do you think they should not have done? The PR is also because the schools rely on their reputations to a large extent- so again, not sure why you are surprised by this. That does not mean that the boys school condones the actions of those pupils. They are trying to protect the school. They can do that and still comply with police investigation.

You might be right- perhaps the two schools don’t care about re the victims/the actions of their pupils and one (or both) are hindering the police investigation deliberately. Perhaps the police aren’t doing a good job of investigating due to misogyny and/or incompetence. But I don’t really think we can be certain of that from the information you’ve quoted.

Sorry if I sound harsh OP- it must be extremely traumatic for the young women involved and those responsible must be held fully accountable. I just take issue with the idea that this all about police incompetence or misogyny and the school being happy for the girls to suffer, because nobody cares whether girls suffer. Too many people seem to like to ascribe everything needs to be seen through a prism of misogyny and incompetence, I find it concerning. These issues absolutely exist, but if we overuse/misapply it, the impact is of actual examples are diminished.

And this is relevant how?

This story involves boys carrying out the crime not girls. Have look at how many male sex offenders there are in jail compared to the numbers of women. Boys and girls and not the same on this issue.

Stupid comment. The story has made it to a national newspaper. I imagine there is a bit more to it than "rumours".

Oh you imagine. That solves that then. Why bother with due process eh?

I agree. It’s a real problem for young people, parents and schools. We need to stop making this about female (good) vs male (evil). It’s an issue which needs tackling, not making one group victims and the others group to blame. I hate the way these trends are going, it doesn’t help make things better. I would also say you would be very naive to assume girls will be the only victims of this.

in my daughter’s school, there was an incident of a girl circulating an intimate picture of one of the boys (so they could all ridicule him) amongst some of the girls. To my knowledge, not happened the other way round. And there are definitely more issues with girls towards girls in terms of bullying/malicious messages and images etc.

Not uncommon for boys to target girls like this if they feel sexually slighted or rejected in some way . Years ago it was vile rumours now it's done by technology. This should not go unpunished. The problem with this is that there always will be a Charlie who thinks no smoke without fire and what they have heard or seen is true and will try their luck only to be rejected and the cycle goes on .