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NOPE
Medium reported severity Involving minors

Girls at a Tasmanian school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images shared in a boys' group chat

Police in Tasmania received a report about alleged illegal online activity involving a group of students at a school in the south of the state, and on 19 March 2026 a local outlet reported that the incident may have involved AI-generated content. On 29 April 2026 the ABC reported, citing Tasmania Police, that girls at the school had their likenesses used to make AI-generated sexual images. Two parents told the ABC that police said 21 girls had been identified as victims, that the AI-altered photos were shared in a boys' group chat and that the images appeared to have been taken from social media. Five boys are alleged to have created the images and have left the school. Tasmania Police said no charges were laid and the five youths were dealt with under the Youth Justice Act. The parents said their daughters felt isolated and unsupported, and the school principal denied that families were advised to withhold information from their children. The creation date and the AI tool are not reported.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Unknown
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
19 March 2026
Event location
Australia
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbusePsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Education · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts
7 claims: 1 disputed, 6 reported. 7 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 21 people

AI system as recorded: Unspecified AI image-manipulation software

Reported harm

Tasmania Police, as relayed by the ABC, said girls' likenesses were used to make AI-generated sexual images, and two parents said police told them 21 girls had been identified as victims. The parents said their daughters felt isolated, unsupported and unsure whom to talk to, and a mother's letter to the education minister describes confusion, isolation and shame among the girls. These are parents' accounts relayed by one outlet and no girl is quoted.

What remains unknown

  • No source states when the images were created or first shared. The earliest date in the sources is early March 2026, when a parent said the incident was being talked about. An ABC item of 5 July 2026 describes the incident as occurring 'earlier this year', and an ABC podcast page of 8 May 2026 asks what teenagers were doing 'over the school holidays' and says the images 'might not have been created in the classroom'. Neither gives a date, so the event start date is unknown.
  • The AI tool and the app or platform used for the group chat are not reported.
  • The girls' ages and school years are not reported. The sources call them girls, students, daughters and children.
  • The count of 21 comes from two parents relaying what police told them. Police published no count in the inspected sources, and the number of girls not yet told is unknown.
  • A local outlet quotes a school letter referring to students from the school and from other local schools. Whether students from other schools created, received or were depicted in the images is not reported.
  • How each girl was affected beyond the parents' accounts is not reported, and no girl is quoted.
  • The identity of the five youths and any later police or school outcome beyond the dealt-with-under-the-Youth-Justice-Act statement are not reported.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. Tasmania Police, as relayed by the ABC, said girls' likenesses were used to make AI-generated sexual images, and two parents said police described the photos as AI-altered. The first local report (19 March 2026) said only that the incident may have involved AI-generated content. No AI tool is named and the images were not seen by the reviewer.

7 claims: 1 disputed, 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Tasmania Police said, as reported by the ABC, that a number of girls at the school had their likenesses used to make AI-generated sexual images. Two parents said police told them the AI-altered photos were shared in a boys' group chat and appeared to have been taken from social media.

Causal attribution. A Tasmania Police attribution stated by the ABC and two parents' account of what police told them. The images and the AI tool were not verified by the reviewer and no tool is named.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    have had their images used to make deepfake pornographic material, according to Tasmania Police.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    who told them the AI-altered photos of the girls had been shared in a boys' group chat and that their images appeared to have been taken from social media.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The faked images of the girls were allegedly shared in a group chat by male students.
  • pulsetasmania.com.au(opens in new tab) context · English
    It is understood the incident may have involved the alleged use of AI-generated content.
Reported Two parents said police told them 21 girls had been identified as victims.

Causal attribution. Second-hand: two parents relaying a police figure to one ABC reporter. Police published no count in the inspected sources.

Reported Five boys are alleged to have created the images and have left the school.

Causal attribution. An allegation the ABC states in the sentence after the parents' account of what police told them, without naming its source. No charge or finding establishes who created the images.

Reported Two parents said their daughters felt isolated and unsupported because they did not know whether peers had been told. One mother told the education minister in a letter that the girls' uncertainty about what they could say to students who had not been told had created confusion, isolation and shame among the girls.

Causal attribution. Parents' accounts relayed by the ABC. No girl is quoted and no clinical assessment is reported.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Both parents said their daughters were struggling with not being able to talk about it with their friends.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    This has created an environment of confusion, isolation, and shame amongst the very girls who need support and solidarity the most.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The two parents told the ABC their daughters felt isolated and unsupported because they did not know if any of their peers had been told.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    not knowing who to talk to
Disputed Two parents said senior school staff told them most parents were not going to tell their children they had been identified. The school principal wrote to families that at no time had families been advised or encouraged to withhold information.

Causal attribution. A parents' account and the principal's written denial, both relayed by the ABC. The dispute concerns the school's handling, not how the images were made.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the staff member told her most parents were not going to tell their children they had been identified in the material
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    I felt I was being encouraged not to tell my daughter
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    that most parents were not going to tell their daughters
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    and went on to advise them that most parents were not going to tell their children
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) contradicts · English
    At no time have families been advised or encouraged to withhold information from their child, nor to prevent their child from speaking with trusted adults.
Reported Tasmania Police received a report of alleged illegal online activity involving a group of students at a school in the south of the state. On 19 March 2026 Pulse Tasmania reported that, as the outlet understood it, the incident may have involved AI-generated content.

Causal attribution. A police spokesperson statement to Pulse Tasmania. The AI involvement is the outlet's understanding and is not attributed to police in this article.

Reported Police spoke to five young people and their parents. No charges were laid and the five youths were dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.

Causal attribution. Tasmania Police statements given to Pulse Tasmania (27 March 2026) and the ABC (29 April 2026). Both may relay one police position, so no independent corroboration is claimed.

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Full article body read (29 April 2026, updated 30 April). Related-story cards on the page were not used. Applies to s1.

Full article body read (30 April 2026, updated 1 May). Same reporter and same two parents as s1, so one independence group. Applies to s2.

Full article body read. Based on a police spokesperson statement and a school letter to parents. Publication date 19 March 2026 from the article header line in the saved text ('Thu March 19, 2026 5:00am'), which matches the published-time metadata in the saved html. Applies to s3.

Full article body read. Same outlet and same police and school chain as s3. Publication date 27 March 2026 from the article header line in the saved text ('Fri March 27, 2026 2:52pm'), which matches the published-time metadata in the saved html. Applies to s4.

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

The sources describe a school in Tasmania, Tasmania Police, a police statement citing the Youth Justice Act and the Tasmanian education minister. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-30: Reports by the ABC (29 and 30 April 2026) and Pulse Tasmania (19 and 27 March 2026). All claims are reported except one that is disputed (the school's advice to parents): the victim count, the alleged creators and the images come from parents relaying police information and from police statements to the two outlets. The school, students, parents, principal and staff are not named and no image detail is given. No source dates the creation of the images, so the case is published undated and outside the 2026 event-year lane.

People reported harmed in this case

At least 21 people

0 AI participants · 21 other people harmed

Two parents told the ABC that police told them 21 girls had been identified as victims (ABC, 29 and 30 April 2026). The figure is a police count relayed by two parents to one reporter and repeated by the outlet. Police published no count in the inspected sources. 21 is used as a lower bound because it counts identified victims only.

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). Girls at a Tasmanian school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images shared in a boys' group chat. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tasmania-school-reported-ai-sexual-images-of-girls-shared-in-boys-group-chat

BibTeX

@misc{2026_tasmania_school_reported_ai_sexual_images_of_girls_shared_in_boys_group_chat,
  title = {Girls at a Tasmanian school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images shared in a boys' group chat},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-tasmania-school-reported-ai-sexual-images-of-girls-shared-in-boys-group-chat}
}

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