Governments consider educational responses following worrying deepfake attack — EducationHQ

Education Minister Ben Carroll said changes to the Respectful Relationships program were being evaluated after a teenager was arrested in connection with the manipulation of photos of 50 girls at Bacchus Marsh Grammar.

“We’re looking at it more broadly because we think the pornography and other parts of Respectful Relationships could possibly be exposed, and that’s something we’re looking at,” he told reporters .

“This is something we will continue to be vigilant about.”

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare echoed his Victorian counterpart, saying the manipulation of the girls’ photos was “terrifying”.

“It’s hard to imagine anything more frightening or more horrific than the use of AI technology to perpetuate these false images and spread them,” he said.

“There is no silver bullet here, but there is a role to play in the classroom and boys and young men, in particular, need to understand how important this is.”

Deepfake apps capable of imposing women’s heads on naked bodies are being circulated on social media as experts warn more advanced software could be on the horizon.

Laws cracking down on the sharing of sexually explicit AI-generated images and deepfakes without consent were recently introduced in Federal Parliament.

However, concerns remain about the availability of online programs to create deepfake images.

Jeannie Paterson, a professor at the University of Melbourne who specializes in the legal aspects of AI, said that while there are laws to punish those who share deepfakes, once they have been shared it is perhaps too late to avoid any harm.

“The law is expressed to cover synthetically generated, non-consensual intimate images as well as (real) images, to combat this behavior,” she said.

“The problem is we’re not aware of what’s going on until it’s available, and once it’s available on the Internet, it’s just hard to contain.”

Paterson said the state government’s plan to expand its respectful relationships program did not go far enough.

“It’s not about relationships, it’s about the exercise of power,” she said.

“There is no connection here – these images were designed to hurt and humiliate. »

Bacchus Marsh Grammar said it was advising students after learning about the production and circulation of video content.

Victoria Police officers arrested the teenager over the explicit images posted online and he was released pending further investigation.

The case is still ongoing.