A Tasmanian private school criticised for its handling of an AI deepfake incident has denied it ever tried to discourage parents from telling their daughters they had been identified in sexually explicit images.
Two parents told the ABC that senior staff at The Friends’ School had called to tell them their daughters had been identified in AI-generated pornographic images and went on to advise them that most parents were not going to tell their children.
The faked images of the girls were allegedly shared in a group chat by male students. The parents said police told them 21 girls had been identified as victims.
Five boys have since left the school and police said no charges had been laid.
In a formal complaint to the school, one parent wrote: “I was advised [by the school] that the majority of parents had chosen not to inform their children that they had been identified, and that this was considered to be in the best interests of the students.”
The two parents told the ABC their daughters felt isolated and unsupported because they did not know if any of their peers had been told.
“So they’re at school not talking about it,” one said.
In an email to all school parents late on Wednesday night, the Friends’ School principal, Esther Hill, said: “At no time have families been advised or encouraged to withhold information from their child, nor to prevent their child from speaking with trusted adults.”
Principal Esther Hill says the school is balancing “transparency, the integrity of the investigation, and the wellbeing of those involved”. (The Friends’ School)
She said she was “concerned by aspects” of the ABC’s reporting, “including omissions of important elements — such as the privacy and agency of individuals, the support provided to families, and the guidance of police and other authorities”.
This reporting does not “accurately reflect the situation”, she wrote.
The ABC included large parts of a statement from the school in its reporting and also spoke to police and support services.
One of the two parents who spoke to the ABC said the school’s denial was “hideous”.
“I remember clearly the statement ‘most parents had decided not to tell their child’. I will never forget those words. I will never forget the silence in mid-conversation, and awkwardness after,” she said of the conversation with one of the school’s senior staff members.
Student well-being, not reputation ‘at the centre of all decisions’, principal says
In her all-parents email, Ms Hill also said: “We recognise that these are deeply personal, private and distressing circumstances, and the school has worked alongside families to support them as they navigate this challenging experience, including respecting each family’s decisions about how to approach conversations with their child.”
The principal said families of students identified in the images had been informed in a “trauma-informed, sensitive and supportive manner” and that on the day the school was informed of the incident took “immediate steps” to support student safety and refer the matter to Tasmania Police.
Principal Esther Hill says the school has been guided by police and expert advice. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
“Communication with families has, at all times, been guided by police and expert advice,” the email said, “with the aim of balancing transparency, the integrity of the investigation, and the well-being of those involved.”
“Student wellbeing remains at the centre of all decisions and actions, not protecting the school’s reputation,” she said.
The email provided all Friends’ families with website links to support through the eSafety Commissioner, Lifeline and Kids Helpline.
The images were allegedly shared in a boys’ group chat. Five male students have since left the school. (Supplied: Adobe Stock)
One of the parents the ABC spoke to disputed that she and her daughter had been given enough support.
“We were not supported,” she said.
“We were handed a list of external agencies and left to deal with the fallout ourselves.
“That is not trauma-informed care.”
Critical that victims have ‘agency’, support service says
Laurel House CEO Kathryn Fordyce said schools should treat the prospect of deepfake incidents as “not if but when”.
“We know that when you don’t have a plan for a crisis … we end up in situations where maybe people with good intentions are doing the best with the information they’ve got available,” she said.
AI deepfakes are in schools. What’s the right way to handle them?
“We know from other experiences of victim-survivors of sexual violence, child sexual abuse in particular, that institutions sometimes prioritise their own reputations or sometimes the reputations of young men over the experiences of young women who have been victimised.
“I think that it’s really critical that schools and other organisations that are engaging with young people are really actively considering how they would respond to these kinds of disclosures.”
Ms Fordyce said it was critical that victims of deepfake pornographic material were told about the abuse, but in a developmentally appropriate way.
“It’s so critical that they understand what has happened to them, that they have some agency and control in relation to the support that’s offered to them, that they have some involvement if there’s any kind of restorative justice approaches in place for the people who have used harm against them,” she said.
“Trauma-informed care prioritises that a victim-survivor has the information they need to make informed decisions about their care and support moving forward so disclosing these experiences is the critical first part of that.”
She advised parents and guardians to call sexual violence support services like Laurel House for guidance.
