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Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

Yaroslavl (Russia) court orders parents of pupil who used a neural network to turn his filmed teacher into a bare-chested man in a video to pay her damages

A court in Yaroslavl, Russia, ordered the parents of a seventh-grade pupil to pay a mathematics teacher 10,000 roubles each in compensation for moral harm, according to reports in March 2026 of the court's own announcement. The court's press service said that in February 2025 the boy filmed the teacher at work without her knowledge or consent, then used a neural network to generate a video from the footage in which she turns into a man with a bare athletic torso, and posted it in the class chat. The teacher told the court that afterwards she did not want to go back into the classroom, felt the pupils' sideways looks and that her authority had been damaged. The parents contested the claim, saying their son had only applied a trending effect and that the teacher disliked him; they did not dispute that he filmed her and made the video. The court found that the video harmed her honour, dignity and professional reputation.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Feb 2025
Reported
16 March 2026
Event location
Russia
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Reputational HarmPsychological DistressProfessional Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Education · Work
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: A neural-network video effect applied by a pupil to classroom footage of his teacher, generating a video in which she turns into a bare-chested man; the court's press service describes it as created with a neural network, and no tool or app is named

What Happened

The video. According to the court's press service, as reported by Mel and Moskovskoye Vremya, in February 2025 a seventh-grade pupil filmed his mathematics teacher at work without her knowledge or consent. Using a neural network, he generated a video from the footage in which the teacher turns into a man with a bare, athletic torso, and he published it in the class chat.

The harm. The teacher sued the boy's parents. She told the court that spreading the video damaged her authority and created negative opinion about her, that afterwards she did not want to enter the classroom, felt the pupils' sideways looks and felt ashamed.

The ruling. The parents did not accept the claim. They argued that their son had only used a trending effect and had not invented the plot, that the video was not defamatory, and that the teacher disliked their child; they did not dispute that he filmed her and created the video. The court rejected their arguments, found that the seventh-grader's dissemination of the video harmed her honour, dignity and professional reputation and caused her moral suffering, and ordered each parent to pay 10,000 roubles in compensation.

What is not known. The school, the court's case number, the date of the judgment and the app or tool used are not reported. The judgment itself was not read; all three reports relay the court's own announcement.

Reported harm

The teacher told the court the video damaged her authority and left her ashamed and reluctant to enter the classroom; the court found moral harm and awarded 20,000 roubles in total.

How Harm Occurred

A pupil used a neural network to turn classroom footage of his teacher, filmed without consent, into a video of her becoming a bare-chested man and posted it in the class chat; the teacher told the court it left her ashamed and undermined her authority.

Outcome

Resolved

The court ordered the pupil's mother and father to pay the teacher 10,000 roubles each in compensation for moral harm (court press service as reported by Mel on 16 March 2026 and by Altapress, citing TASS, on 17 March 2026). Moskovskoye Vremya (25 March 2026) attributes further explanation of the case to the Yaroslavl Regional Court. No appeal outcome was found.

What remains unknown

  • The school, the court of first instance, the case number and the date of the judgment.
  • The app or tool used to generate the video.
  • Whether the ruling was appealed.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The court's press service, reporting a ruling in the teacher's civil claim, says the pupil used a neural network to generate, from footage of the teacher, a video in which she turns into a bare-chested man; the parents did not dispute that he created the video and said he had applied a trending effect. The generated video depicting her is what circulated in the class chat and what the court found harmed her honour and reputation.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The court's press service says that in February 2025 a seventh-grade pupil filmed his teacher at work without her knowledge or consent and used a neural network to generate a video from it in which she turns into a man with a bare athletic torso, which he posted in the class chat.

Causal attribution. Court press-service account relayed by three outlets (one origin); the parents did not dispute the filming or the video.

  • mel.fm(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Инцидент произошел в феврале 2025 года, когда ученик снял на видео преподавательницу математики одной из школ города на уроке без ее ведома и согласия.'; 'Затем с помощью нейросети на основе полученного изображения подросток сгенерировал видео, в котором педагог превращается в мужчину с обнаженным торсом атлетического сложения, и опубликовал этот ролик в чате класса.'
  • mskvremya.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'В пресс-службе суда рассказали, что инцидент произошел в феврале 2025 года.'
  • altapress.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Видео разлетелось по чату класса, и педагог, узнав об этом, обратилась в суд с иском к родителям ученика.'
Reported The teacher told the court that afterwards she did not want to return to the classroom, felt the pupils' sideways looks and that her authority among the pupils had been damaged.

Causal attribution. The teacher's account to the court, as relayed from the court's announcement.

  • mel.fm(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Женщина рассказала в заявлении, что после произошедшего не хотела возвращаться в класс, чувствовала на себе косые взгляды детей, а ее авторитет среди учеников пошатнулся.'
  • mskvremya.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'В суде педагог пояснила, что распространение такого контента нанесло урон ее авторитету, сформировало негативное общественное мнение.'
Reported The parents contested the claim, saying their son had only applied a trending effect and had not invented the plot and that the teacher disliked him; they did not dispute that he filmed her and created the video.

Causal attribution. The parents' position as reported from the court's announcement.

  • mel.fm(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Родители ученика иск не признали, однако не стали оспаривать, что их сын снял на телефон учителя и создал видео. При этом они отметили, что мальчик не сам придумал сюжет ролика, а лишь применил трендовый эффект.'
  • altapress.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Мать и отец школьника пытались оправдаться: утверждали, что сын использовал трендовый эффект и сам сюжет не придумывал.'
Reported The court found that the seventh-grader's dissemination of the video harmed the teacher's honour, dignity and professional reputation and caused her moral suffering, and ordered each parent to pay her 10,000 roubles.

Causal attribution. The court's ruling as announced by its press service; the judgment text was not read, so the claim is reported.

  • mel.fm(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Суд пришел к выводу, что истцу по вине семиклассника, распространившего сведения, порочащие ее честь, достоинство и деловую репутацию, причинены нравственные страдания.'; 'С матери и отца школьника суд взыскал компенсацию морального вреда в размере 10 тысяч рублей с каждого.'
  • mskvremya.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Суд обязал родителей семиклассника выплатить компенсацию морального вреда за видео с учителем, созданное их ребенком с помощью нейросети.'
  • altapress.ru(opens in new tab) supports · Russian
    'Суд пришел к выводу, что распространенное видео порочит честь, достоинство и деловую репутацию учительницы.'; 'Суд взыскал с каждого из родителей по 10 тысяч рублей компенсации морального вреда.'

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

Read in Russian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Education news site reporting the court's announcement on its VK page, 16 March 2026; HTTP 200. Applies to s1.

Read in Russian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Moscow newspaper reporting the court press service's account, 25 March 2026; HTTP 200. Applies to s2.

Read in Russian by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Regional news site relaying TASS, 17 March 2026; HTTP 200. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Russia. Affected-person countries: Russia. Court countries: Russia.

The reports place the filming in a lesson at a school in the city of Yaroslavl, Russia, where the teacher works; the case was decided by a Yaroslavl court.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-27: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): a court's own announcement says a pupil generated a video of his teacher with a neural network and posted it in the class chat, and the court awarded her compensation for the resulting moral harm. The teacher and pupil are not named and the school is not identified.

People described

A mathematics teacher at a school in Yaroslavl who was filmed in class without her consent and depicted in the generated video

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person: the teacher depicted in the video, to whom the court awarded compensation.

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). Yaroslavl (Russia) court orders parents of pupil who used a neural network to turn his filmed teacher into a bare-chested man in a video to pay her damages. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-yaroslavl-court-orders-parents-of-pupil-who-made-ai-video-turning-teacher-into-bare-chested-man-to-pay-her-damages

BibTeX

@misc{2025_yaroslavl_court_orders_parents_of_pupil_who_made_ai_video_turning_teacher_into_bare_chested_man_to_pay_her_damages,
  title = {Yaroslavl (Russia) court orders parents of pupil who used a neural network to turn his filmed teacher into a bare-chested man in a video to pay her damages},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-yaroslavl-court-orders-parents-of-pupil-who-made-ai-video-turning-teacher-into-bare-chested-man-to-pay-her-damages}
}

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