(NewsNation) — AI-generated nude photos recently circulated in a New Jersey school, an example of how the intersection of sex and technology is nearly impossible for parents to navigate, let alone discover, before it’s shared with others.
It can be embarrassing for the victims and sometimes end in tragedy.
Dr. Daniel Bober, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Odyssey Behavioral Health Care, says the case reminds him of Tyler Clementi. The Rutgers University student jumped to his death in 2010 after his roommate used a webcam to view Clementi kissing another man and posted about it on Twitter.
“Shame and humiliation are both risk factors for suicide and women in this country, and young girls are under an assault of their self-esteem, dealing with increased rates of depression, eating disorders, being objectified,” Bober said Friday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “This is very troubling, and I think because AI is so accessible, it’s only going to get worse.”
In New Jersey, high school students say they were stunned to learn inappropriate photos of them were circulating among their classmates — and that the images were completely fake.
A group of boys at Westfield High School in New Jersey have been accused of using artificial intelligence to generate pornographic pictures of female students at the school and then sharing them in group chats. Police are now investigating, but experts say this kind of problem is only becoming more prevalent.
Even if the photo is fake, Bober said incidents like this one can still be harmful.
“I think at some level people know that it’s fake, and probably the more it happens, people might become numb to it, are desensitized, but it’s still a young woman, it’s still her face, it’s still something that all her classmates and all her friends have to look at,” Bober said. “So, I think for a lot of women who struggle with fragile self-esteem and their ego is still developing, it could be something that’s deeply hurtful.”
The parents in New Jersey were also angry over how the school district responded.
A school spokesperson told NewsNation the school could not provide specific details on the investigation or results. The incident reportedly happened over the summer but did not come to the school’s attention until October.
“The WHS Counseling Department met individually with students seeking support and WHS administration and counseling department met with the entire grade level in small groups to discuss the incident, provide support, and detail district policies related to inappropriate use of technology,” the statement said.
So, what can parents do to protect their children?
“I always tell parents, you know, if they’re going to have a computer or smartphone, sometimes it’s good to keep it in a common area because when they’re off in cyberspace, you just don’t know what kind of trouble they’re getting into,” Bober said. “We know that kids are much more likely to do things like this because of the relative anonymity of being on the internet versus someone doing it face to face.”
Mitigating the dangers of AI has been a focus of the Biden administration, who earlier this year met with tech CEOs at the White House to discuss building safeguards into the technology.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on artificial intelligence. He said, “To realize the promise of AI and avoid the risk, we need to govern this technology.”
Bober adds that companies bear some responsibility, too.
“Companies have a moral responsibility to restrict or deter people from doing this,” he said, “and of course, state legislatures like Virginia, California, New York and Minnesota, states that are ahead of the curve in terms of the federal government — they need to outlaw this, they need to make it a serious crime to deter people from doing it.”
NewsNation’s Nick Smith and Courtney Han contributed to this report.