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NJ teen wins fight to put nudify app users in prison, impose fines up to $30K

arstechnica.com

NJ teen wins fight to put nudify app users in prison, impose fines up to $30K

Here’s how one teen plans to fix schools failing kids affected by nudify apps.

11 comments

  • Here's how one teen plans to fix schools failing kids affected by nudify apps.

    At the time, adults did not seem to take the harassment seriously, telling her to move on after she demanded more severe consequences than just a single boy's one or two-day suspension.

    …

    At Mani's school, for example, leadership was criticized for announcing the victims' names over the loudspeaker, which Encode Justice said never should have happened. Another misstep was at a California middle school, which delayed action for four months until parents went to police, Encode Justice said. In Texas, a school failed to stop images from spreading for eight months while a victim pleaded for help from administrators and police who failed to intervene. The longer the delays, the more victims will likely be targeted. In Pennsylvania, a single ninth grader targeted 46 girls before anyone stepped in.

    Students deserve better, Mani feels, and Encode Justice's plan recommends that all schools create action plans to stop failing students and respond promptly to stop image sharing.

    That starts with updating policies to ban deepfake sexual imagery, then clearly communicating to students "the seriousness of the issue and the severity of the consequences." Consequences should include identifying all perpetrators and issuing suspensions or expulsions on top of any legal consequences students face, Encode Justice suggested. They also recommend establishing "written procedures to discreetly inform relevant authorities about incidents and to support victims at the start of an investigation on deepfake sexual abuse." And, critically, all teachers must be trained on these new policies.

    I do not want anything girls harassed, and it’s insane schools would announce any names involved over the PA.

    But unless the fake nudes were made or sent while at school or with school equipment, what is the school supposed to do about it? Even if it’s happening while at school, this is still criminal activity, so the school isn’t the only entity who can alert the authorities. It’s not like schools can arrest anyone.

    Harassment is already a crime. Go to the cops if you want someone arrested for that. Not your teacher or principal. If the laws need updating, go to lawmakers.

    Schools can’t solve every problem kids face. I understand the criticism of things the school did to make it worse, but there’s a strange amount of emphasis in this article on making schools stop a problem that is outside their power.

    • No. Harassment and distribution still takes place in school. It doesn't end when you enter school grounds. Expecting the victims of harassment to just accept sitting next to their bullies in class doesn't sound like an environment where students are taken care of and enabled to excel. Police also famously aren't all that reliable, especially at stuff like this, and so therefore other means of limiting and ending the harassment as early as possible becomes vital.

      Lawmakers also aren't exactly quick to update laws meaning that while the law catches up harassers have free reign to do whatever. Your take is the sort of take that enables and protects harassers, even if not on purpose.

      I'm so tired of everyone wanting students to not face consequences for their actions against their fellow students. People need to learn to live together and this means learning how not to behave, and clearly we should prioritize the rights and peace of mind of victims and not of the bullies and harassers.

      • Okay, if you notify the school about the harassment, then obviously separate them.

        But my point is schools cannot give punishment for things happening outside of school. They’re not going to be able to stop that part.

        The consequences for stuff outside of school need to come from the appropriate people.

    • I don't agree.

      Schools have the power to enforce rules and guidelines as needed. In addition the superintendant, president, or whomever is in charge of the schools has the ability to demand the government also steps in as children are actively being harmed.

      Saying that "oh shucks it's not our fault and it didn't happen in our schools so we shouldn't have to care about the wellbeing of our students" is an absurd idea is it not?

      • Would we have jail cells in the schools to hold kids for shoplifting after school for the local shop?

        You seem to be intentionally misunderstanding the point I was making. (similar to what I did in this comment)

        If there is a behavior child is doing at school, then the school should step in. If it’s illegal, they should alert the authorities. If they hear about something after school, they should alert the authorities.

        They should not punish in school for after school activities. They can do stuff to keep others safe, but thinking schools can’t stop fake nudes, is naive. They can only do so much.

        No one is saying they should do nothing.

        But this article sounds like they have the power to fix this problem, and it’s the school’s fault it’s happening.

    • I think I agree.

  • By the way, how was this in the past? If you draw a portrait of your classmate naked, how was that handled in the past?

    • Is the situation of someone drawing another person naked without their consent really that helpful when informing how we handle nudify apps?

      Drawing a nude portrait of a person is a lot of work, so mostly this was an issue celebrities had to deal with, and the scale is not the same (the number of people who could produce deepfakes was small, and the number of people that were impacted were also small).

      Now nudify apps are easy to use, so producing convincing deepfakes is accessible to anyone (including teenagers), creating a fairly different situation, and the way it should be handled is probably different too.

    • If 80s movies have taught me anything: badly.

11 comments