This kind of behavior should be met with swift and strong reaction from both the school authorities and the law enforcement. Kids responsible should be put on trial and face serious consequences including jail time for most egregious cases. Let the news cover it nationwide. "This is what will happen if you even think about creating and circulating nude pics of anyone" should be the message sent. This is the only way to prevent this behavior - not more censorship, not technical solutions
I don't know how society will function when it's as easy to fake a video or image as it is to draw a stick figure. Hopefully it at least means that people view what happened here as akin to scribbling boobs on someone's photo, but we're not there yet apparently.
This has nothing to do with “deepfakes”. These girls could have been attacked by aliens and be received with more credulity. There has to be a point where you understand that this behavior towards girls and women is simply being allowed.
One of the mothers says this quite explicitly:
> Calling the event rumors and speculation when a crime occurred was almost worse than the crime
This is sadly becoming very common and they are worringly good enough for people to assume they are real. I had a friend who had this issue, she has tried to ride it off as no clue who made them or shared them but I know it can't be easy for her. There needs to be appropriate laws for this the same way there is for revenge porn etc.
Didn't get past the paywall but, recently a friend had their primary school targeted by blackmailers who took public photos of children and made (I'm told) extremely explicit images with them, threatening to release them if not paid.
What's the defense? Intelligent screening of incoming messages so that the threat never reaches the blackmail target? I imagine they'll find an unprotected channel.
Don't post innocuous images of children ever? Seems like losing.
Prosecuting every one of those blackmailers. If this kind of crime starts going into the "you're gonna get caught and jailed 100%" category, less people will try it.
Don't post innocuous images of children ever? Seems like losing.
I do have to say that I find it disturbing how liberally parents seem to post pictures of their children in public though. Respect the privacy of your children, they’re not your pets.
I'm more thinking, the winning school sports team, a choir performing, etc. Things that would be posted in normal institutional participation and give children positive affirmation and recognition
Certainly in my lifetime we never posted such things publicly across the globe, neither for myself nor my peers, nor for my children and most of their peers at school.
Such things were printed and handed out and rarely made it past that years parents and students and the school archive (physical visit required).
It's nice to see pictures of people. I like when parents share photos of my kids at events where they're having a great time but I couldn't make it. It's nice when the local paper shows a picture of happy graduating 8th graders.
Saying "you shouldn't do this thing that was basically harmless from the birth of photography until the ~2010's" is ignoring a lot of history and context.
> What's the defense? Intelligent screening of incoming messages so that the threat never reaches the blackmail target? I imagine they'll find an unprotected channel.
Same defenses that are used against fraud and other crime.
criminal prosecution of the blackmailers AND the services used to generate the pictures.
This is effectively child porn... so penalties would be pretty harsh.
There are extradition treaties to most of the world, so unless the blackmailers are in China/Russia they will end up in jail.
That same thing played out with piracy with people extradited to the US from various countries
That is a clear-cut case of extortion. The defence is having the police do their job and apprehend the criminals in question. If you screen incoming messages and stop them from reaching their target, extortionists will switch to publicly releasing one risque image with threats of releasing more explicit ones. There is always an unprotected channel as you noted.
As an aside, please do not use the b-mail word. It is insensitive towards BIPOCs.
This kind of behavior should be met with swift and strong reaction from both the school authorities and the law enforcement. Kids responsible should be put on trial and face serious consequences including jail time for most egregious cases. Let the news cover it nationwide. "This is what will happen if you even think about creating and circulating nude pics of anyone" should be the message sent. This is the only way to prevent this behavior - not more censorship, not technical solutions
I don't know how society will function when it's as easy to fake a video or image as it is to draw a stick figure. Hopefully it at least means that people view what happened here as akin to scribbling boobs on someone's photo, but we're not there yet apparently.
https://archive.is/neN8H
This has nothing to do with “deepfakes”. These girls could have been attacked by aliens and be received with more credulity. There has to be a point where you understand that this behavior towards girls and women is simply being allowed.
One of the mothers says this quite explicitly:
> Calling the event rumors and speculation when a crime occurred was almost worse than the crime
https://archive.is/neN8H
This is sadly becoming very common and they are worringly good enough for people to assume they are real. I had a friend who had this issue, she has tried to ride it off as no clue who made them or shared them but I know it can't be easy for her. There needs to be appropriate laws for this the same way there is for revenge porn etc.
Didn't get past the paywall but, recently a friend had their primary school targeted by blackmailers who took public photos of children and made (I'm told) extremely explicit images with them, threatening to release them if not paid.
What's the defense? Intelligent screening of incoming messages so that the threat never reaches the blackmail target? I imagine they'll find an unprotected channel.
Don't post innocuous images of children ever? Seems like losing.
> What's the defense?
Prosecuting every one of those blackmailers. If this kind of crime starts going into the "you're gonna get caught and jailed 100%" category, less people will try it.
Don't post innocuous images of children ever? Seems like losing.
I do have to say that I find it disturbing how liberally parents seem to post pictures of their children in public though. Respect the privacy of your children, they’re not your pets.
I'm more thinking, the winning school sports team, a choir performing, etc. Things that would be posted in normal institutional participation and give children positive affirmation and recognition
Certainly in my lifetime we never posted such things publicly across the globe, neither for myself nor my peers, nor for my children and most of their peers at school.
Such things were printed and handed out and rarely made it past that years parents and students and the school archive (physical visit required).
Getting in the newspaper or on TV for winning an award or competition or something has been around for a long time.
For the very rare few, yes, a fair while.
For the Dux's and general high performers, less time than I've been alive.
For entire classrooms to be posted up via live streams, Insta, tok's, etc ... barely a decade or so.
It's not something that was always normal, and just because it's become "normalised" doesn't mean it must remain that way.
It's nice to see pictures of people. I like when parents share photos of my kids at events where they're having a great time but I couldn't make it. It's nice when the local paper shows a picture of happy graduating 8th graders.
Saying "you shouldn't do this thing that was basically harmless from the birth of photography until the ~2010's" is ignoring a lot of history and context.
> What's the defense?
Prosecution of AI operators for making indecent images of children?
> What's the defense? Intelligent screening of incoming messages so that the threat never reaches the blackmail target? I imagine they'll find an unprotected channel.
Same defenses that are used against fraud and other crime.
criminal prosecution of the blackmailers AND the services used to generate the pictures.
This is effectively child porn... so penalties would be pretty harsh.
There are extradition treaties to most of the world, so unless the blackmailers are in China/Russia they will end up in jail.
That same thing played out with piracy with people extradited to the US from various countries
Not caring.
That is a clear-cut case of extortion. The defence is having the police do their job and apprehend the criminals in question. If you screen incoming messages and stop them from reaching their target, extortionists will switch to publicly releasing one risque image with threats of releasing more explicit ones. There is always an unprotected channel as you noted.
As an aside, please do not use the b-mail word. It is insensitive towards BIPOCs.
In the US possession of CSAM is a strict-liability crime. If the models contain the data to produce it, the modelmakers should be liable.
> Don't post innocuous images of children ever?
Don’t raise boys who abuse girls. That’d be a big step in the right direction.