Teens are making deep fake porn videos of their peers. Here's what you need to know.

We need to talk about deep fake porn. Particularly the fact that high-school aged kids, often boys, are the ones behind this alarming new trend happening in schools.

According to the experts, deep fake porn has escalated in American and now Australian high schools, with some students using the technology to make videos of their female classmates, posting and distributing them online.

It has many quite concerned, and rightly so. 

Firstly, what is deep fake porn? 

Deep fakes are nothing new. Some might remember this viral deep fake video of Tom Cruise from a few years ago.

Essentially, a deep fake is an AI-generated edited software that shows someone doing or saying something that never happened. Think fake images created on photoshop – but the video and audio equivalent.

While the most convincing deep fakes are generated by powerful computers and intelligent software, anyone who has a computer and some strong technological literacy could do it too. That includes high school kids.

Watch: The concern surrounding deep fakes. Post continues below.

Sensity AI, a research company tracking deep fake videos, found that 96 per cent are pornographic in nature. And we can only guess the sheer amount of people within that percentage whose identity was used in a deep fake porn video without their consent.

Deep fake porn videos are being made and distributed among school students.

Just this month a story went viral about a 14-year-old female student who became a victim of a deep fake pornographic video at the hands of her fellow male students. 

The parent of the girl said to The Wall Street Journal: "I am terrified by how this is going to surface and when. My daughter has a bright future and no one can guarantee this won’t impact her professionally, academically or socially."

The girl said: "We're aware that there are creepy guys out there, but you'd never think one of your classmates would violate you like this."

The male student/culprit, who has since been suspended, hadn't just made a video of this girl but also 30 female peers. All the videos were created and published online without their consent. The young students have then had to grapple with the fact their faces have been pasted onto another person's body to make it look as though they're legitimately engaging in a pornographic act.

James Purtill is a Tech Reporter for the ABC and host of ABC Radio National's podcast Science Friction - Hello AI Overlords. Speaking with Mamamia's news podcast The Quicky, he says it's incredibly easy for young people to learn how to create these sorts of videos. 

"People can download an app or some software that will perform a face swap function. It's similar technology to a face filter you would use on Instagram or Snapchat, but instead of your face used, it's somebody else's face," he explains.

"Another way is contacting a professional who can do a better job and they might send them some photos and send them a bit of money."

Listen to this issue be discussed on The Quicky. Post continues after audio.

For parents who would like to monitor if their kids have this sort of software on their phones, Purtill says words like 'face swap' and even 'deep fake' are often in the apps' title.

"When we heard about deep fakes, there was a lot of talk about politicians and celebrities being affected. But where people maybe didn't see it happening was with school children using this kind of technology on their classmates, teachers and so on. It's a sign of how rapidly it's moving."

The impact of deep fake porn.

Katrina Lines is a Psychologist and CEO of Act For Kids, a support service for children or families at risk of harm. She tells Mamamia there are certain ways to support a young person who has become a victim of this sort of crime. 

"It would be quite shocking to see," she notes from the victim's perspective.

"People will need support for that feeling of shock, being violated and having absolutely no control over the circumstances. Action that might be helpful is notifying the eSafety Commissioner, reporting the incident to the school, and providing emotional support."

Now when it comes to speaking to the perpetrators of these acts, Lines says it is equally important to address.

"It's the same conversation about consent. The basis is you're taking away someone's right to consent. I think we have a huge issue in Australia with boys and young men in understanding what is appropriate and not appropriate socially and sexually. We need to have open and honest conversations in homes about what is and isn't okay."

What's being done about deep fake porn.

It's a difficult terrain to navigate, given sophisticated AI technology is growing exponentially faster than the necessary regulation. 

Several years ago now, Reddit and PornHub banned deep fake porn, but smaller pornographic sites still frequently post violative pornography like deep fakes with little to no repercussions. 

In the United States, around 46 states have some form of ban on revenge porn, but only Virginia's and California's laws include faked and deep faked media. 

And in the UK, the government recently amended the Online Safety Bill in a bid to crackdown on the material.

In Australia, image-based abuse is a breach of the Online Safety Act 2021, and under the Act, perpetrators can be issued a fine or imposed with jail time in some jurisdictions. The non-consensual distribution of intimate images, including synthetic media, is criminalised in all Australian jurisdictions except for Tasmania.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said to SBS' The Feed that they have been seeing a rise in deep fake technology being weaponised to create pornographic videos.

The Commissioner also said that any Australian whose images or videos have been altered to appear sexualised and are published online without consent can contact eSafety for help to have them removed.

As Psychologist Katrina Lines says to The Quicky, it's a situation no parent wants to see their child encounter.

"It's a difficult situation because that feeling of not having any control is actually very hard to get past. It's up to the school to take a whole of community anti-bullying approach."

Feature Image: Getty.