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.

Or perhaps my judgement is clouded by the fact that a female friend of my DD was told at her private school to drop the complaint against a male pupil because he had a place at a prestigious university (she did not) and because it was her word against his, she wouldn’t be believed because they needed his place for their figures. So what is the point of calling behaviour like this out?

If you look right now at the Tory party betting scandal they too are hiding behind ‘investigation/procedure etc’ and yes everyone wants the evidence to be admissible in this case but until the perpetuation of behaviour stops it is the girls who bear the bring of it all.

It has to stop somewhere.

And I hope the girls creating the image were dealt with? I agree it should not be the presumption that all girls are good and all boys are bad, but there does seem to be more incidents involving boys sharing images than girls. Anecdotally at least.

Thank you for the link to the Times article, @ErrolTheDragon

And thank you for your posts, OP. Your latest is shocking but not surprising

The story in The Times is not a figment of my imagination.

Of course. Nothing printed in a national newspaper ever turned out to be inaccurate did it?

PS, not your latest post, OP. We crossed. Your post of 11.37

Of course things can be wrong or misconstrued in the press. But this sounds like quite a detailed report.

Do you believe these things don't happen?

Is it just us feminists making it up?

Depressing isn’t it?

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it did happen, in fact it was very likely to happen once the technology became available. I merely pointed out that publication is not proof.

Or perhaps my judgement is clouded by the fact that a female friend of my DD was told at her private school to drop the complaint against a male pupil because he had a place at a prestigious university (she did not) and because it was her word against his, she wouldn’t be believed because they needed his place for their figures. See also victims (& parents) being told not to damage the schools reputation or rock the boat for the sake of harmony in the class/boarding house. Even threatened by lawyers to shut up. While wealthy parents of miscreants rock up with their own heavy hitting lawyers or their cheque book offering a fat contribution to the school’s latest building project to make the problem go away. I’ve heard this sort of crap often enough over the years to think some schools are definitely not innocent, not that I'd tar them all with the same brush.

Your judgement isn't clouded OP. The police will take time to investigate especially if they're encountering a well funded legal defence. But some schools do seem to have a habit of sweeping this stuff under the carpet and posters suggesting the school needs to distance itself from criminality that occurred within its own walls is interesting don’t you think?

Christ. These boys need this kn their record. If they think they've got away with it, guess who's coming to a workplace near you?

Sorry OP I am not clear.

Is this the Australian case or another one here in the UK?

There was a program on radio 4 - there’s a whole industry devoted to helping men make deep fake porn of women they don’t like / think need taking down a peg or two. Then they all share it with each other. So that’s nice 🙄. So sadly find this article entirely credible .

Girls aren’t perfect but Dd was horrified on seeing the boys group chat. How nasty and vile they were about the girls physically horrible names etc. The girls chat is just not like that.

This is the result of “Boys will be boys.”

It’s shocking but not surprising I suppose that the ruling class keeps on doing what the ruling class does. Protect little toe rags.

Mine was about the Times article. The school is in the UK. Someone else shared a link to a similar incident in Melborne, Aus.

It’s everywhere.

As Germaine Greer said most women have little idea of how much men hate them. It’s sad when you uncover the evidence of this.

I get what you are saying on the back of this story but when you write, ‘manhood we have now’ are you honestly suggesting that back in the day 10, 20, 30+ years ago men were definitely a cut above, all men were fine specimens of the human race that we wanted to pro create with? It was worse then were more likely to think that you were a possession of theres and really there to accommodate and support their life once you were in a relationship long term with them!

I have a DD who is a young teen and sadly that is not my experience. One girl wrote a scathing attack on another outlining what was wrong with her physical looks, her personality and her clothes, I think she also tried to physically harm her, she comes from a lovely MC family - sadly like in my day there are some horrible girls around.

As this is a criminal matter (correctly in my opinion) I don’t think 8 weeks is that much time. The police need time to investigate to make sure they don’t jeopardise any future legal action.

It is terrifying though that this kind of thing can be done so easily now.

Which school? Does it begin with H?

I’m not sure their “privilege” is relevant? This is a sex crime and they should face the same consequences whether their parents have £100 in the bank or £100 million.

As I said in the opening post, please do not speculate on the school out of respect for the girls going through this. It is bad enough for them as it is.

This is, of course, awful. Sadly, all young people need to know that their images can now easily be used to make deep fake porn. I am regularly shocked by how many parents share images of their kids on accounts which are essentially public, as well as how few teenagers have their SM appropriately locked down. Please teach your kids to look after the images they have of themselves and their friends

Please direct us to the examples of women and girls abusing men in this way.

This is awful. Legislating seems to be the only way out of this if kids (or adults) are accessing tools which they are using for such destructive purposes. It’s way beyond the capacity of schools and the current powers available to police to deal with.