Skip to main content
High News report Involves Minor Investigation Opened

Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports

In early December 2025 a Chinese secondary school in Muar, Johor, expelled three male pupils in Forms 2, 3 and 4 after finding they had used AI software to composite several female classmates' faces onto indecent images, some of which had spread online. The school said it was told of the images on Monday 1 December, investigated immediately, met the parents of all pupils involved, expelled the three under its rules with a stated zero-tolerance policy, and urged victims to lodge police reports and parents to delete any such images. The boys' parents accepted the decision. At least two girls lodged police reports; the Muar district police chief confirmed reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation, and that an investigation was under way. No charge or later outcome has been reported.

AI System

AI image software used by pupils to composite classmates' faces onto indecent images (software not identified)

Occurred

Dec 2025

Reported

3 December 2025

Event location

Malaysia

Platform

other

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The school and the China Press report describe the images as AI deepfakes made with AI software ('menggunakan kecerdasan buatan (AI)', '利用人工智能软体'); the police confirmation does not describe the tool. No forensic finding and no tool name.

AI-to-person relation

  • Depicted or impersonated the person

Core relations are communication, acting on someone’s behalf, and depiction or impersonation. Decision and claim relations are retained as contextual cases.

Someone else’s AI use. Settings: Education, Privacy, Justice.

Claim status: Reported

Three male pupils in Forms 2, 3 and 4 at a Chinese secondary school in Muar used AI software to composite several female classmates' faces onto indecent images; some of the images spread on the internet; at least two girls lodged police reports.

Causal attribution: School statement and principal's account as first reported by China Press and relayed by FMT and Seehua; single reporting chain.

  • News report (supports): 'Sebuah sekolah Cina di Muar, Johor, mengambil tindakan buang sekolah terhadap tiga pelajar lelaki kerana menggunakan kecerdasan buatan (AI) untuk menghasilkan imej lucah deepfake melibatkan rakan sekelas perempuan mereka' (a Chinese school in Muar, Johor, expelled three male pupils for using AI to produce indecent deepfake images involving their female classmates); 'China Press melaporkan bahawa sebahagian daripada imej yang diubahsuai itu tersebar di internet, melibatkan sekurang-kurangnya dua pelajar perempuan yang telah membuat laporan polis' (China Press reported that some of the altered images spread on the internet, involving at least two female pupils who lodged police reports).
  • News report (supports): '3名涉案学生分别就读初二、初三及高一。据了解,他们利用人工智能软体,将多名女生的头像合成至不雅照片中,部分影像更已在网路上流传' (the three pupils are in junior two, junior three and senior one; they used AI software to composite several girls' faces into indecent photos, some of which had already circulated online); '至少有2名女学生受害,受害者已向警方报案' (at least two girls were affected and the victims have reported to police).
  • News report (supports): 'expelled three male students for using artificial intelligence to make explicit AI deepfake images of their female classmates'; 'affecting at least two female students who filed police reports'.

Claim status: Reported

The school was told of the images on Monday 1 December 2025, investigated immediately, met the parents of all pupils involved, expelled the three boys under its rules citing zero tolerance, urged the victims to report to police and parents to delete such images; the boys' parents accepted the decision.

Causal attribution: School statement and principal's account; single chain.

  • News report (supports): '校方是本周一接获校内流传不雅合成照片的消息,鉴于事态严重,立即展开调查,并在确认涉案学生与受害女生身分后,安排双方家长到校会面' (the school received word on Monday this week that composited indecent photos were circulating in the school, began an investigation immediately given the seriousness, and after confirming the identities of the pupils involved and the affected girls arranged for both sets of parents to meet at the school); '男生家长也接受校方开除学籍的决定' (the boys' parents accepted the school's decision to expel them).
  • News report (supports): 'telah membuang pelajar Tingkatan 2, 3 dan 4 tersebut selaras peraturan sekolah' (expelled the Form 2, 3 and 4 pupils in line with school rules); 'Ibu bapa ketiga-tiga pelajar terbabit menerima keputusan sekolah untuk membuang mereka' (the parents of all three pupils accepted the school's decision to expel them).

Claim status: Reported

The Muar district police chief confirmed that reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation, and that an investigation was under way.

Causal attribution: Police chief's confirmation as quoted in the same reports.

  • News report (supports): '麻坡警区主任拉益慕克里兹受询时证实,警方已接获相关报案,并已传召涉案男学生协助调查,案件仍在进一步调查中' (the Muar district police chief confirmed when asked that police had received the reports, had summoned the boys involved to assist the investigation, and the case was still under investigation).
  • News report (supports): 'Ketua Polis Muar ... mengesahkan laporan telah diterima dan siasatan sedang dijalankan' (the Muar police chief confirmed reports had been received and an investigation was under way).

What remains unknown

  • How many girls were affected beyond the two who lodged police reports; Seehua says several.
  • The ages of the three boys beyond their forms (Form 2 to Form 4, roughly 14 to 16).
  • When the images were made and how widely they circulated; the school learned of them on 1 December 2025.
  • The AI software used.
  • Any charge or outcome of the police investigation.
  • The China Press original was not read (HTTP 403), so the reporting chain is established from FMT's attribution only.
Source reading, translation and location

News report · ms · Source inspected

Read in Malay on 2026-09-19 (FMT Malay edition, published 2025-12-04 11:03 UTC). Credits China Press; carries the school statement and the Muar police chief's confirmation. Model reading of the original; English glosses are the reviewer's.

This source shares an underlying account with another listed source.

News report · en · Source inspected

Read in English on 2026-09-19 (FMT, published 2025-12-04 10:49 UTC). English version of the same China Press-derived report.

This source shares an underlying account with another listed source.

News report · zh · Source inspected

Read in Chinese on 2026-09-19 through a Wayback Machine capture (the live page returns HTTP 403); Seehua, published 2025-12-03 22:37 +08:00, Muar dateline 3 December. Same school statement and police confirmation with more detail on the school's steps; no attribution to another outlet is shown, so independence from China Press is not established.

This source shares an underlying account with another listed source.

Event countries: Malaysia. Affected-person countries: Malaysia. Court countries: Unknown.

The school and the police district are in Muar, Johor, Malaysia; the pupils are of that school. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-19: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact case involving minors with an institutional response and a police investigation, on the school's own statement and the district police chief's confirmation as relayed by three outlets in Malay, English and Chinese (one reporting chain, recorded as reported). The pupils are minors and unnamed; the school is described by type and district; the principal and police chief are not named in the record.

What Happened

China Press reported, and Seehua, FMT and other outlets relayed, that three male pupils of a Chinese independent secondary school in Muar used AI software to composite the faces of several female pupils onto indecent images, some of which had circulated online. The principal said the school received word on Monday 1 December 2025 that composited indecent images were circulating in the school, began an investigation immediately, and after confirming the identities of the boys and the affected girls arranged for both sets of parents to come to the school. In a statement the school said it had a zero-tolerance policy, expelled the pupils from Forms 2, 3 and 4 under school rules, encouraged the girls to lodge police reports, and told parents through parent groups to supervise their children's online activity and delete any such images rather than forward them, to avoid a second injury to the victims. The parents of the three boys accepted the expulsion. At least two girls lodged police reports. The Muar district police chief confirmed reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to give statements, and that the investigation was continuing.

Reported harm

AI-composited indecent images of female classmates were made and some circulated online; at least two girls lodged police reports and the school expelled the three boys.

Exploitation or AbuseReputational Harm

Outcome

Unknown

The school expelled the three boys in the week of 1 December 2025 and their parents accepted the decision. The Muar district police chief confirmed on 3 December 2025 that reports had been received, the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation and the case was under investigation. No charge, prosecution or closure has been reported as of 2026-09-19.

People described

Female pupils of a Chinese secondary school in Muar, Johor, whose faces were composited onto indecent images; at least two lodged police reports; none named

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

At least two female pupils lodged police reports ('sekurang-kurangnya dua pelajar perempuan yang telah membuat laporan polis'; '至少有2名女学生受害'); Seehua says several girls' faces were composited ('多名女生'), which is not quantified. The three expelled boys are not counted as harmed.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2025). Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports. NOPE: AI and people. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-muar-johor-school-ai-deepfake-three-pupils-expelled

BibTeX

@misc{2025_muar_johor_school_ai_deepfake_three_pupils_expelled,
  title = {Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2025},
  howpublished = {NOPE: AI and people},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-muar-johor-school-ai-deepfake-three-pupils-expelled}
}

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.