Police are investigating after boys at Westfield High School in New Jersey used AI image generators to make and share fake nude photos of female classmates. The school learned about the images four days after students began acting “weird,” and the investigation faces a basic obstacle: police do not have access to the images that could help trace their source.
What is known about the school incident
In an email reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, principal Mary Asfendis said the school “believed” the images had been deleted and were no longer circulating among students. That wording leaves open whether every copy was removed or whether the images could later resurface.
The number of students affected remains unclear. A Westfield Public Schools spokesperson declined to say how many students were involved or whether anyone had been disciplined, citing student confidentiality. The school also had not confirmed whether faculty reviewed the images. It appeared to notify targeted girls after boys said they had seen them.
For students depicted in the images, the harm can extend beyond the initial incident. Some told the Wall Street Journal they felt uncomfortable going to school with boys who had made the images. They worried the material might reappear and affect their social, academic or professional lives. Others said the experience changed how they think about posting online.
Existing laws leave questions open
Whether the boys’ actions violated the law was not clear from the available information. The Wall Street Journal reported that there was no federal law restricting the creation of fake sexual images of real people. Child safety experts had also reported in June that there appeared to be no way to stop thousands of realistic but fake AI child sex images from being shared online.
Some states have acted on distribution of fake pornography. Virginia, California, Minnesota and New York have passed laws against it, according to the report. In New Jersey, state senator Jon Bramnick said he would look into whether current laws or pending bills could criminalize creating and sharing AI-generated nudes. If he found no applicable measure, he planned to draft a new law.
Other New Jersey laws, including those addressing harassment or distribution of child sexual abuse materials, could potentially apply. But the case shows the difficulty of determining how existing rules fit images generated by AI, particularly when investigators cannot examine the images themselves.
Policy and enforcement are still developing
President Joe Biden’s executive order urged lawmakers to establish protections against a range of harms, including the use of generative AI to create child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate imagery of real people. It asked the Commerce and Homeland Security secretaries, along with other agency heads, to recommend testing and safeguards for these uses. The source noted that new protections could take years to arrive, if they do.
The New Jersey inquiry is continuing. Bramnick asked the Union County prosecutor to determine what happened, and state police were still investigating. Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle encouraged additional victims to report the incident. Asfendis also pledged to raise awareness at the school about responsible use of new technologies.
A case in New York illustrates how prosecutors may use existing laws. In April, 22-year-old Patrick Carey was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of probation after sharing sexually explicit deepfake images of more than a dozen underage women and posting identifying information that encouraged harassment and threats. He was found to have violated laws involving harassment, stalking, child endangerment and promotion of a child sexual performance.
New York later passed a law banning AI-generated revenge porn. The developments underline how legal responses can evolve, while leaving families and schools to address immediate concerns about images being created, shared or revived.
Filters do not resolve the underlying risk
Some image generators, including OpenAI’s DALL-E and Adobe’s Firefly, have moderation settings intended to block pornographic images. Experts told the Wall Street Journal that enforcing even strong filters is challenging, potentially “impossible.” Tools that swap faces or remove clothing can also be combined by someone determined and skilled enough to make deepfakes.
The incident has therefore become both a police matter and a school community issue. The girls targeted said that being harmed by classmates felt especially unsettling. Asfendis described the incident as serious and said students need to understand the damage falsified images can cause. For the students, the effort to support victims and prevent further harm continues while investigators and lawmakers consider what can be done.