Deepfake school scandals continue to rise across Australia
More than 50 reports of deepfakes – where AI turns photos into pornographic images – can be revealed as school scandals rise. Can you spot one? See the video and expert advice for parents.
More than 50 reports of deepfakes – where AI is used to turn innocent photos into pornographic images – were reported to the online safety watchdog last year, it can be revealed.
While the ages of the victims were not confirmed, 45 of the 52 reports involved females, and the regulator is increasingly concerned about the rise of these AI-generated fakes among school kids.
In response, the eSafety Commissioner is set to meet education ministers next month to address the issue.
Schools are also calling for a national campaign to raise awareness following a number of
deepfake scandals, involving male students taking innocent photos and videos off a classmate’s social media, or from school yearbooks, and feeding them through ‘nudify’ apps.
The technology appears to remove someone’s clothing in seconds.
Teachers have also been targeted.
In one incident at a Sydney private school, male students were caught selling deepfake nudes of female students for less than $5 via group chats on Instagram and Snapchat.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she has been asked to meet with education ministers in October to discuss “how we can curb and respond to this very troubling behaviour”.
She said the eSafety Commission is supporting schools with extensive classroom resources to foster respectful and safer online behaviours.
The education packs teach kids that creating sexual images of a child – whether fake or not – is considered Child Sexual Abuse Material and is against the law.
Some children have been expelled or charged after producing explicit images and sharing them.
Independent Schools Australia chief Graham Catt said the harm caused to victims is profound.
“What’s urgently needed is a strong, national education campaign so that young people understand the law, the damage these fakes can cause, and that creating or sharing them is a criminal offence,” Mr Catt said.
“Without that awareness, we risk both more victims and more young people ending up in the justice system.”
University of Tasmania Senior Lecturer Joel Scanlan said platforms like Apple and Google, hosting ‘nudify’ apps, should do more to block them.
Apps on Google containing elements of generative AI prohibit the generation of restricted content that facilitates the exploitation of children.
“It’s sort of like a whack-a-mole situation that a bunch of these apps get put up, they get taken down, they get replaced, and it’s just a sort of cycle, Mr Scanlon said.
“They could certainly be doing better, from my perspective.”
However, he conceded that a deepfake crisis in South Korea last year showed how a chatbot on the encrypted site Telegram was able to create deepfakes.
In that instance students from more than 500 schools and universities in South Korea were sharing images on a mass scale.
‘Humiliation rooms’ were also set up where people could add pictures or video of a named student to help with the creation of content.
Mr Scanlan said the scale of the abuse in South Korea should be cause for alarm here in Australia.
Spokespeople from the Queensland and Victorian education departments said processes were in place to navigate and report “negative, harmful” and “disrespectful” behaviour online, while in Queensland state school principals have the authority to suspend or exclude students for such behaviours.
Deepfake school scandals across Australia:
GLADSTONE PARK SECONDARY COLLEGE
Two Year 11 students were suspended from Melbourne’s Gladstone Park Secondary College in February 2025, after an unknown number of deepfake sexually explicit images were circulated online. Victoria Police said at the time as many as 60 students could be impacted.
GRACE LUTHERAN COLLEGE
In June 2025, Grace Lutheran College in Rothwell, Brisbane, allegedly failed to alert police to deepfake nudes of female students created and shared online by a male classmate. The first report of the explicit material was filed on May 27, 2024 by parents, with others following suit in July. The Queensland boy was charged with one count each of possessing child exploitation material and distributing child exploitation material on April 19, 2025.
MALE PRIVATE SCHOOL, SYDNEY
Male students at a private school in Sydney were caught selling deepfake nude images of female students via group chats on Instagram and Snapchat for less than $5 in May, 2025. AI was used to superimpose the faces of their female peers onto sexually explicit images. It is understood girls from two other independent schools were also impacted.
SECONDARY SCHOOL, SYDNEY
A male Year 12 student from a secondary school in southwest Sydney was referred to police in January, 2025 for allegedly creating deepfake pornographic images of his female peers. He was also accused of making fake social media accounts of the other students.
BACCHUS MARSH GRAMMAR
In June 2024, Victoria’s Bacchus Marsh Grammar made international headlines after AI deepfake nudes were created of 50 female students in Years 9 to 12. The images were created with AI using real photos of the students taken from social media, and were then circulated on Instagram and Snapchat. A former student of the coeducational secondary school, located an hour north west of Melbourne, was arrested at the time.
SALESIAN COLLEGE
In May 2024, a 15-year-old student from Salesian College in Chadstone, Victoria was expelled after creating explicit images of a female teacher using an AI app. The Catholic independent school investigated the matter and made steps to remove the student.
ST IGNATIUS COLLEGE
A teenage boy from the senior school at St Ignatius College, an independent Catholic school in Athelstone, Adelaide, was suspended in May 2024 after an AI deepfake image involving a teacher was discovered. The incident was reported to SA Police.
Advice for parents from eSafety:
*Talk regularly about the harms of deepfakes and that creating them may be a crime. Keep your tone supportive and not judgmental. If something ever happens, your child will be more likely to come to you.
*If your child is affected - as a target, bystander, or creator - your first words matter. Stay calm. Try language such as ‘I’m glad you told me’ and ‘Let’s figure out what to do together.’
*If your child is a target help them collect evidence – screenshots, links, usernames (without saving or sharing explicit content).
*Do not view, collect, print, share or store explicit material. Make a written description and note where it is located.
*Support them to report the incident – to the platform, the school, local police or eSafety.
*Check on their wellbeing and ask if they’d like professional support and reassure them they are not alone and help is available.
*If your child receives a deepfake praise them for not sharing it and talk about empathy and digital responsibility
*If your child created or shared a deepfake, stay calm and listen. Explain the serious emotional and legal consequences and encourage accountability – deleting the content, apologising, or reporting it so platforms know to remove any copies.
To report abuse go to: www.esafety.gov.au/report
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Originally published as Deepfake school scandals continue to rise across Australia
