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NOPE
Medium reported severity

Female students at a Sydney high school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images circulated online

On 9 January 2025 outlets reported that NSW Police had begun an investigation on 6 January after a report that inappropriate images were being produced and distributed online. The Guardian reported the allegation that a student at a Sydney high school used AI platforms to create explicit deepfake images of female students and circulated them through fake social media accounts. The Department of Education said it was helping affected students with wellbeing support and referred the matter to the eSafety Commissioner. The creation date, the AI tool, the number of affected students and the outcome of the investigation are not reported.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Unknown
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
9 January 2025
Event location
Australia
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Education · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 6 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: Unspecified AI image-generation platforms

Reported harm

Outlets report that AI-generated sexual images of female students were circulated online and the Department of Education said it was helping affected students with wellbeing support. No affected student's own account and no count of victims is reported.

What remains unknown

  • The event start date is unknown. Creation is reported as during the school holidays, and no cited source says when the holidays began. The only dated fact is the police report and investigation start on 6 January 2025, so creation may have been in December 2024.
  • The AI tool or platform, the platforms on which the images were shared and the number of images are not reported.
  • The number of affected students is not reported by any inspected source.
  • The ages of the affected students are not stated. The student alleged to have created the images is described as a senior student and a teenage boy.
  • How individual students were affected is not described beyond the offer of wellbeing support.
  • The outcome of the police investigation and of any disciplinary action is not reported in the inspected sources.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Outlets report, as an allegation, that a student used AI platforms to create explicit deepfake images. The police statement quoted refers only to inappropriate images produced and distributed online. No tool is named and the images were not seen by the reviewer.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A high school student in Sydney was reported to police after allegedly using AI platforms to create explicit deepfake images of female students and circulating them using fake social media accounts.

Causal attribution. Allegations relayed by two outlets from police and department statements. The police statement quoted refers only to inappropriate images. The images, the AI tool and the alleged creator's role were not verified by the reviewer. ABC and Information Age describe the fake social media profiles as depicting students, and the Guardian describes fake accounts used to circulate the images.

  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    has been reported to police after allegedly using artificial intelligence platforms to create pornography featuring other students
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The student is alleged to have created explicit deepfake images of female students and circulated them using fake social media accounts.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The senior student is accused of allegedly using artificial intelligence to create deepfake pornographic images of female students and making fake social media profiles.
Reported NSW Police began an investigation on 6 January 2025 after a report that inappropriate images were being produced and distributed online.

Causal attribution. One NSW Police statement carried by two outlets. It dates the investigation and the report, not the creation of the images.

  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    began an investigation on 6 January after reports of inappropriate images being produced and distributed online.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    NSW Police confirmed they had commenced an investigation after receiving a report on Monday
Reported Authorities were reported to believe the images were created at home during the school holidays and not on school grounds.

Causal attribution. A belief attributed to unnamed authorities by one trade-press outlet. No source states when the holidays began or on what date the images were created.

  • ia.acs.org.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Authorities believe the images were created at home during the school holidays, and not on school grounds.
Reported The NSW Department of Education said it was helping affected students with wellbeing support and would do so as long as required, and the incident was referred to the eSafety Commissioner.

Causal attribution. Department statements as relayed by two outlets. No affected student is quoted and no individual effect on a student is described.

Reported The NSW education minister said there would be disciplinary action for the student.

Causal attribution. A ministerial statement of intended action. It does not establish what the student did.

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Trade-press report. It cites the ABC report for the minister's remarks and quotes a department statement given to it that repeats the Guardian and ABC wording. The "created at home during the school holidays" sentence appears only here. Applies to s3.

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

The sources describe a Sydney high school, NSW Police, the New South Wales Department of Education and the NSW education minister. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Three January 2025 reports (Guardian, ABC, Information Age) that rest on one NSW Police statement and one Department of Education statement, plus one unattributed belief of authorities reported only by Information Age. All claims are reported. The school, the students including the student alleged to have created the images, and the police command are not named, and no image detail is given. The event date is unknown (only the 6 January 2025 police report is dated), so the case is published undated and outside the 2025 event-year count.

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

No inspected source gives a number of affected students. Zero is a placeholder and does not state that nobody was 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. (2026). Female students at a Sydney high school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images circulated online. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-sydney-school-reported-ai-sexual-images-of-female-students

BibTeX

@misc{2025_sydney_school_reported_ai_sexual_images_of_female_students,
  title = {Female students at a Sydney high school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images circulated online},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-sydney-school-reported-ai-sexual-images-of-female-students}
}

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