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Newtown Township police have charged a Council Rock student who allegedly used AI technology to create pornographic deepfake images of female classmates.
The student, who attended Newtown Middle School last year, is not being identified because he’s charged as a juvenile. The case now moves to the juvenile court which legally limits the amount of information that authorities are permitted to release.
Newtown Township police Capt. Jason Harris confirmed July 16 that the investigation was closed with an arrest “a short time ago.” Police and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the investigation was active last month.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office spokesman said the office is legally prohibited from releasing any identifying information about the juvenile under the Pennsylvania Juvenile Act including a defendant’s age or school grade.
The incident reportedly occurred in March. Photos of as many as 12 underage girls were used to create phony nude images, according to individuals familiar with the allegations.
It was not immediately known if the images were shared with others or available online.
Council Rock School District officials previously declined to comment, referring questions to the police.
Harris previously confirmed that Council Rock staff reported the matter to police. It’s not clear whether ChildLine, the state’s child abuse hotline, was notified.
It’s also unknown what charges the juvenile is facing, but last year Pennsylvania became the first state to outlaw AI generated pornographic images.
It is now a crime to harass someone by distributing a deepfake image of them without consent while in a state of nudity or engaged in a sexual act. The offense is more serious if the victim is a minor.
So-called deepfakes are images, videos and audio generated by artificial intelligence tools to depict both real and nonexistent people. Deepfakes can be made to look real using someone’s actual face or voice.
In some cases, a person’s image has been placed on a nude body or pornographic image in no way associated with them and shared online.
Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com.
