The Hidden Safety Crisis AI Is Creating In Education

A deep dive into an ABC News report on AI deepfakes in schools, exploring student harm, policy gaps, and why safeguarding and digital literacy are now critical in education.

Transcript

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If this episode makes you think, please let us know in the comments and support us by subscribing and leaving a review. Thank you. Today we are exploring an ABC news article by Alison Costello titled AI Deep Fakes Are Circulating in Our Schools. What's the right way to handle them? Published in April 2026. Now this piece shifts the conversation in a really important way. Much of what we've been talking about with AI in education focuses on learning, assessment and teaching. But this article brings us into something different. Safeguarding, student well-being, and what happens when AI is not just a tool for learning, but a tool that can cause harm. The article opens with a real incident in a Tasmanian school, where deep fake pornographic images were created using the faces of twenty one female students. Parents later criticized the school's response, particularly because they were advised not to tell their daughters that their images had been used. Some families chose to tell them anyway, and the students reportedly felt silenced and unsupported, unsure who else knew and what was being done. Now just pause on that for a moment, because this is not a hypothetical risk. This is already happening, and it immediately changes the framing of AI in education. This is no longer just about whether students use AI to complete assignments. It is about identity, consent, and safety. The article then explains what a deep fake actually is. On page three, it describes it as a photo, video or audio file generated using AI to show someone doing or saying something they never actually did. These can be highly realistic, especially on small screens, and are easy to create and share. What makes this particularly concerning in a school context is how accessible the technology has become. Apps that can generate this content are often low cost or even free, which lowers the barrier to entry significantly. Now the motivations behind deepfakes vary, but the article highlights some of the most concerning. According to the eSafety Commissioner, they can be used to harass, humiliate or exploit individuals, including for sexual purposes or abuse. And critically, victims often do not even know that their image has been used. That last point is important, because it means harm can occur without awareness. A student's image can be taken from social media or even a school photo, manipulated and shared all without their knowledge. By the time they find out, the damage may already be done. The scale of the issue is also growing rapidly. On page four, the article cites data showing a 550% increase in deep fake content online since 2019. Even more concerning is the nature of that content. Around 98% of deep fake videos are pornographic, and 99% of those images target women and girls. Now bring that into a school context and the implications become very real. The article describes deep fake incidents as throwing entire school communities into turmoil. Students feel humiliated, angry, and afraid. Even those who are not directly targeted can feel anxious, unsure how to respond, and worried they might be next. So this is not just an individual issue. It becomes a community issue. Now this raises a difficult question. What is the responsibility of the school? The article is quite clear that this is complex, particularly because much of this content is created outside school, on personal devices and outside school hours. But even so, schools are still expected to act. They are described as frontline responders with a responsibility to prioritize student well-being above all else. And the guidance here is quite practical. Schools should ensure that victims are supported and involved in decisions about how incidents are handled. The focus should not be on protecting the school's reputation, but on supporting the individuals affected. A designated staff member should manage the response, information should be carefully controlled, and incidents should be reported to both police and relevant safety bodies. Now there is something important in that guidance. It is not just about responding to the incident. It is about how the response is experienced, whether students feel heard, supported, and involved. Because in cases like this, the response can either rebuild trust or further damage it. The article also emphasizes prevention. On page six, it highlights the importance of education around digital literacy, respectful relationships, and consent. Now that might sound familiar because we often talk about digital literacy in terms of evaluating information or using tools effectively. But here it takes on a different meaning. It becomes about understanding the ethical and social consequences of technology use. There is also guidance for parents, which adds another layer to this. If a child's image has been used in a deep fake, the advice is to stay calm, gather evidence, and report the incident to relevant authorities. But equally important is the emotional response. The article highlights that victims may feel shame, fear, isolation, and mistrust, and that support needs to address those feelings as much as the incident itself. And then there is the legal dimension. On page eight, the article notes that Australia has introduced laws banning the sharing of non-consensual deep fake pornography, with penalties of up to six years in prison. Now that is significant because it means that what might be seen by some students as a joke or experiment can carry serious legal consequences. So where does this leave us? Because this article is not really about deep fakes alone. It is about what happens when powerful technology becomes widely accessible before systems are ready to manage it. And that is a pattern we have seen before, but the stakes here feel different. In education we often talk about preparing students for the future, but this is already the present. Students are navigating technologies that can affect identity, reputation, and well-being in very immediate ways. And schools are being asked to respond to situations that sit somewhere between discipline, safeguarding, and law enforcement. So the role of education starts to expand. It is not just about teaching subjects or even digital skills. It is about helping students understand the impact of their actions in a world where those actions can be amplified and manipulated through technology. And that raises a final question worth sitting with. If AI can now be used not just to assist learning, but to harm others in ways that are difficult to detect and control, what does it mean to be digitally literate? Because it is no longer just about knowing how to use a tool, it is about understanding the responsibility that comes with it. That's all for today. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.