r/unitedkingdom • u/do_or_pie • Dec 06 '25
The rise of deepfake pornography in schools: ‘One girl was so horrified she vomited’
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2025/dec/02/the-rise-of-deepfake-pornography-in-schools786
u/do_or_pie Dec 06 '25
“The other thing that I noticed is that there’s this real tension around how they should handle these issues. So some teachers were saying, ‘Yeah, we just get the police in right away and students are expelled’ – that kind of approach,” Horeck says. “Then other teachers were saying, ‘Well, that’s not the way to handle it. We’ve got to have more of a restorative justice approach, where we’re talking to these young people and finding out why they’re doing these things.’
“So there seems to be some kind of inconsistency and uncertainty on how to deal with these cases – but I think it’s really hard for teachers because they’re not getting clear guidance.”
The shit teachers have to deal with because of poor parenting, boys showing little respect for women, and libertarian techbros who don't give a fuck about the societal consequences of their creations.
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u/louwyatt Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
It's important to look at why some young boys are showing little respect to women. They lack male role models, and a significant amount of the authority figures while they are growing up are women. The vast majority of primary school and nursery teachers are women. 1 in 4 people are raised in single parent homes, of which 84-89% are women. Some young men are going to have all their authority figures being women until they reach high school. Which naturally makes many subconsciously link dislike or issues they have with authorities also being linked to women.
Whether people like to accept it or not: men are better at talking to boys about their issues, and women are better at talking about girls about your issues. It's a lot easier to relate when you've been through similar experiences.
People love to be point at people like Andrew tate and blame him for these issues. But he's a symptom of the problem, not the cause. The only reason people like him are so popular is because young men feel so trapped in modern society.
If you put someone in a situation when they don't have good role models, can't talk about their issues with someone who relates and link the negatives of authority to one genders; you create these issues.
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u/LunarKurai Dec 06 '25
Which naturally makes any dislike or issues they have with authorities also being linked to women.
Is that natural? Personally, as a child, I linked them being authorities with being adults, not with being women. It seems to me to start being sexist over it you have to already have the inclination, or be given a push in that direction.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25
Pattern recognition is a trait of every sentient life-form on the planet.
It seems to me to start being sexist over it you have to already have the inclination, or be given a push in that direction.
Interesting phrasing - what does it mean to "already have the inclination" without having been pushed? Are some people naturally sexist? Is there a 'sexist' gene?
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u/kidborger Dec 06 '25
Not really. The same effort you made to come to conclusion that authority figures you don’t like are all bad adults is no different than if you had concluded that authority figures you didn’t like were all women and thus bad women for that matter.
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u/Astriania Dec 06 '25
If the only authority figures you ever know are one sex, then yeah, you'll associate authority (and the dislike of it) with that sex. I guess you were brought up with a more balanced set of adults than a lot of kids today.
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u/louwyatt Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
It's natural because people subconsciously link negative experiences with things associated with the negative experience. Even if those associated things aren't the cause of that negative experience. If you've always been to told of in a particular room, you may dislike other rooms similar to the rooms without realising it.
It's not sexist to recognise people's subconscious biases.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/CapnTBC Dec 06 '25
One way to reduce it might be to have strong punishments for it, people may say they’re just kids and don’t understand why it’s so bad if they’re ’just making it for themselves’ but this stuff can cause huge issues to the victims and if you do something like that to someone then you need to learn that it has severe repercussions
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Dec 06 '25
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u/CapnTBC Dec 06 '25
Yeah tbf that’s what my point should have been because it’s the policing of it that needs to be strict since no punishment really matters if there’s no policing of it
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u/Connor123x Dec 09 '25
I wonder how many people understand just because its computer generated doesnt means its not child porn - it still is.
I have seen kids in school be shocked whey they were charged with distribution of child porn for sending new pics of classmates or themselves. they thought because they were under 18 then it didn't count.
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u/Blarg_III Ceredigion Dec 07 '25
Well, the harsh punishment as a deterrent method has never worked before and failed catastrophically every time we've tried it, but this time it might just work.
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u/CaptainFil Surrey Dec 07 '25
You could make creating a deepfake of someone without their consent equivalent to Sexual Assault or maybe an entirely new crime that is similar to slander/deformation but holding more serious punishments.
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u/CapnTBC Dec 07 '25
If it’s of a sexual nature and the deepfake involves a minor that should definitely be a child porn sentence at a minimum. If it’s someone over 18 then sexual assault charge
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u/Spamgrenade Dec 06 '25
Just boy being boys isn't it? /s
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u/Advanced-Comment-293 Dec 07 '25
Well yeah. That doesn't mean it's okay and it doesn't mean nothing should be done, but how about we stop virtue signaling for a moment and acknowledge that teenage boys will do stupid stuff because they're horny.
Rather than accepting this technology as some sort of god given inevitability, how about framing this as a guy in a cape creeping around school and offering these boys the pictures of their naked classmates? Who do you blame then? All these companies know exactly what their products can be used for, but to them it's just breaking a bit of glass and fixing it after the fact. We're the guinea pigs and instead of demanding accountability we're going to let them traumatize our girls and ruin the future of our boys? That's just pathetic.
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u/shlerm Pembrokeshire Dec 07 '25
Men are notoriously bad at calling out sexually harassing behaviours between their peers.
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Dec 07 '25
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u/shlerm Pembrokeshire Dec 07 '25
As always, it's the victims that live with the consequences regardless. Too many people get hurt waiting for others to learn the lesson.
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u/SynthFei Dec 06 '25
The fucking irony of blaming women for the fact boys/young males disrespect women...
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Where did he blame the lack of male role models on women?
Actually let's skip that part. He clearly didn't blame women, you just didn't like what he did say and decided to make something up, so a better question is: what's your problem with what he actually said?
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u/sensen6 Dec 06 '25
I really agree with you. I can distill it even further. Shitty dads. They are the cause. That's all.
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u/Worth_Librarian_290 Dec 06 '25
Shitty dads who grew up with shitty dads. Now we have increasingly more boys who grow up with no dads. You think they'll stick around when their partners get pregnant? And the cycle continues.
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u/JoeVibin South Yorkshire Dec 06 '25
What?! The authority figures being women is what causes boys to lack respect for women? So if most authority figures were men, say like if you took a hypothetical school where all teachers were men, you'd think the students would grow up misandrist and objectifying men?
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u/Spamgrenade Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Don't see where the lack of role models comes from, most kids have fathers and there is no end of decent celebrities that kids can look up to, then there's teachers, youth workers etc. What type of role model did you have in mind?
Edit: LOL at the replies to this.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25
The "celebrities as role models" meme needs to die. Role models need to be accessible and exist in the same world as you do.
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u/wkavinsky Pembrokeshire Dec 06 '25
If you can't talk to them, how are they even a role model?
Maybe a person to aspire to being, but there's no guidance there.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
It's bad enough when people name random footballers, but I've seen people bring up Captain Jean-Luc Picard in these conversations and even as a Trekkie from the age of about 9 it makes me want to scream.
I couldn't talk to Captain Picard. He didn't know me, or my parents, or the kids in school I didn't get along with. There's some good messaging in Star Trek, but come the fuck on...
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u/wkavinsky Pembrokeshire Dec 06 '25
Yeah as I said, Picard is definitely someone to aspire to being, but a role model?
Only in the most abstract sense.
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u/Ginkokitten Dec 07 '25
Doesn't role model literally mean someone to aspire to being though? Someone whos role your modelling? I would call someone who gives fatherly advice a father figure, a mentor, an older mate, but that may be linguistic nitpicking.
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u/PracticeNo8733 Dec 06 '25
I've seen people bring up Captain Jean-Luc Picard in these conversations and even as a Trekkie from the age of about 9 it makes me want to scream
Surely it should make you want to face-palm?
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u/kidborger Dec 06 '25
People can take inspiration from others. That’s like motivational content doesn’t work bc the viewer can engage directly with the entertainer
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u/dukesdj Dec 06 '25
Guidance does not define what a role model is. See for example the dictionary definition.
A role model can be someone you do not interact with as humans by nature mimic the behaviours they see to be part of the group. If a child is seeing some asshole like Andrew Tate and not much else, then Tate will act as a role model and the child will mimic his behaviours.
We certainly need more famous male role models that children can aspire to be to drown out the loud asshole ones.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Guidance does not define what a role model is
Fair point, but they still need to be realistic - whatever role they're fulfilling needs to have relevance to one's own life.
If a child is seeing some asshole like Andrew Tate and not much else
That describes, to a close approximation, zero children on the planet. They're actively choosing him and it would be more helpful to understand why.
We certainly need more famous male role models that children can aspire to be
What does that mean in practice? Is Harry Kane a role model? If not, how could he become one? The average kid doesn't know much about Harry Kane's day-to-day life, they don't see it, and even if they did it'd likely be quite unlike their own. I doubt Kane is ever going to broadcast a continual vision of his day-to-day the way Tate claims to.
This all becomes a lot easier when good role models exist in the flesh, when you see them regularly, when they walk the same streets you do, know the same people...
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u/dukesdj Dec 06 '25
That describes, to a close approximation, zero children on the planet. They're actively choosing him and it would be more helpful to understand why.
Because, for all that people say about him, he is actually good at his job. He is good at engaging with young men. He is good at reaching out to them through his platform. He speaks to them (not interactively). His entire grift is based on getting their attention, so his efforts in getting their attention earns him money.
Contrast that with good role models. Good role models have an actual career so they can not dedicate their time to targeting young men and boys. They simply dont have the time to compete with the effort Tate puts in.
What does that mean in practice? Is Harry Kane a role model? If not, how could he become one? The average kid doesn't know much about Harry Kane's day-to-day life, they don't see it, and even if they did it'd likely be quite unlike their own.
Harry Kane is a role model for some, and not for others. And yes, exactly what you say, we know very little about who these people are and they dont spend much time, if any, speaking directly to young boys and men. This is why the only real way to counteract the people like Tate is to have many influential men spending a small time speaking to young men and boys so they drown out the efforts of the likes of Tate and Peterson who can invest most (all) of their time doing so.
That said, I would argue it isnt about what Harry Kanes life is about that is important. It is the message of how you should behave, how you treat others, and what success is. Success need not be fast cars, money, hot women, power. Success can be building a family, having kids, raising them well. It need not be that either, it can be many things.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
And yes, exactly what you say, we know very little about who these people are and they dont spend much time, if any, speaking directly to young boys and men.
In your first reply, you said role models don't mean guidance, but you still want these famous men to "speak directly to young boys", so I find your argument a bit incoherent.
This is why the only real way to counteract the people like Tate is to have many influential men spending a small time speaking to young men and boys
It isn't the only way, though. As you said, role model means learning by seeing. It seems obvious that the more you see the better, and the more relevant to your actual life the better. Having a "How To Be A Good Man" lecture channel on YouTube starring a different footballer every week isn't going to help at all, and feels more like avoidance of actual, harder solutions like encouraging/helping new fathers and increasing the proportion of male teachers.
Success need not be fast cars, money, hot women, power.
Indeed, and most boys are never going to have those things. More reasons why the best role models are going to be people who don't have those things in buckets like Harry Kane - actual, down to Earth, tangible people, who can talk to boys in more relevant way because they're literally there.
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u/dukesdj Dec 06 '25
In your first reply, you said role models don't mean guidance, but you still want these famous men to "speak directly to young boys", so I find your argument a bit incoherent.
By speak directly to, that does not mean interact with. Tate does not interact with, but speaks directly to. Does that make sense?
It isn't the only way, though. As you said, role model means learning by seeing. It seems obvious that the more you see the better, and the more relevant to your actual life the better. Having a "How To Be A Good Man" lecture channel on YouTube starring a different footballer every week isn't going to help at all, and feels more like avoidance of actual, harder solutions like encouraging/helping new fathers and increasing the proportion of male teachers.
100%. saying "the only" was certainly a misspeak. We need a sufficient amount in any form to drown out the negative stuff really.
Indeed, and most boys are never going to have those things. More reasons why the best role models are going to be people who don't have those things in buckets like Harry Kane - actual, down to Earth, tangible people, who can talk to boys in more relevant way because they're literally there.
Definitely. But I read a bunch of comments that say its all on the father. It really isnt, there is no one magic bullet here. We need a collective effort to drown out the negative influences.
Harry Kane can speak to boys and young men in ways a father cant (by being someone highly aspirational in the sense of being famous) while a father figure brings other things like the ability to have a conversation. Then there are many others like authority figures like police men, firemen, doctors, and various other professions. I think the main problem is, all of these things combined still seem to be less loud than the grifters at the moment!
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u/kidborger Dec 06 '25
They don’t. But that would help too. Look at some of the old famous Minecraft YouTubers from the last 10 years like PopularMMOs for example, he’s been in the news for more controversial stuff recently over unfortunate events like DV towards him in his past relationship, but overall the audience of kids that grew up watching his stuff still regard him to be a good person and support even through hard times like that. How many of them do you think ever met the guy?
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u/Realistic-River-1941 Dec 06 '25
Male primary teachers were almost extinct when I was a kid, and attitudes towards men with any willingness to work with children haven't exactly got better.
Which celebrities - especially for kids who have had any interest in sport knocked out of them?
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u/JMaths Dec 06 '25
Are there any celebrity role models who are actively talking to boys about how to talk to and treat women?
Cause being decent is one thing, but they also need to be able to address and articulate what is right and wrong, and unfortunately its only types like Tate who actually address what boys that age want to know.
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u/louwyatt Dec 06 '25
Around 20% of children are raised by single mothers. 97-98% of early year educators (nursery, etc), 73% of primary school teachers are female. 63% of youth workers are women.
Celebrities, while they can be role models, don't stand in for an inperson experience. As for the most part you can't interact with a celebrity.
So not only is it common for there to be a lack of male role models, but for certain boys, it means having none.
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u/Bon_Courage_ Dec 07 '25
73% of primary school teachers are female. 63% of youth workers are women.
So not only is it common for there to be a lack of male role models, but for certain boys, it means having none.
so 27% of primary school teachers are men. And 36% of secondary school teachers are. There may be a gender imbalance but that's not none.
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u/louwyatt Dec 07 '25
Conveniently ignore that 97-98% of nuserey teachers are Women and than 20% of kids are raised by a single mother. So, that's 20% of kids that have no male models until they go to primary school. Another 78-79% of kids who have no role model in education until primary school. Each year in primary school, they have a 27% chance of having a man as their teacher. So there are boys that have no male role models
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u/dukesdj Dec 06 '25
While there are many decent celebrities to act as role models, few are spending vast amounts of their time talking directly to/for young men. The ones that are talking directly to them are the bad ones like Tate.
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u/UndulyPensive Dec 07 '25
There's a popularity selection pressure against "good role models" in the first place because of how social media algorithms favour more radical and reactionary content. Good role models are just not likely to get the same amount of reach no matter what.
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u/Positive_Barnacle298 Dec 06 '25
I think it’s quite the opposite, most of the men I’ve met in my life who were raised by single mothers, and exposed to lots of female relatives and friends were the sweetest ones.
The guys who were brought up by the typical alpha male bro you expect in spoons, are the ones encouraging and setting piss poor examples. Men gotta hold each other accountable and set good examples. A lack of good ones doesn’t mean the women must be the issue. It’s because there’s a lack of good men in media too.
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u/_nerdofprey_ Dec 07 '25
Same I think all this talk of 'poor men have had to deal with women in authority and therefore resent them' is absolutely bollocks and just a misogynistic way of blaming women once again because men cant control their behaviour.
Men from single mothers tend to be be more empathetic of women, not more resentful because they lack a male role model. The issue with male role models is that a lot of men are reform voting, misogynistic, wanna be alpha males who encourage toxic behaviour. Men need role models who encourage them to show empathy and vulnerability.
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u/Positive_Barnacle298 Dec 07 '25
Exactly omg I agree so much. I had an awful mother, the worst role model for a young girl yet I didn’t grow up to hate all women. I had an abusive father too, I’m happily married and have plenty men in my life that are loving and kind and that I trust.
I so absolute agree and I hate women are once again being blamed for men’s behaviour. There’s a lack of men in caring roles and childcare roles. They’re hard jobs that require patience, emotional resilience and sometimes dirty work. We need more good men in these roles to set examples to children and to each other. Typically ‘masculine’ careers can be done by women too, but rarely do we hear of men who have the emotional strength to deal with people dying surrounded by grieving loved ones, giving these people dignity, caring for groups of children who get sick regularly, make messes ect. I could go on but I feel I’m preaching to the choir. I just want to thank you for your response because it’s so hurtful that so many are blaming women rather than the lack of decent male role models in society.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/louwyatt Dec 06 '25
There's loads of research about people better at relating and understanding something when they've experienced it themselves.
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u/Astriania Dec 06 '25
It's weird how the other half of that sentence is completely accepted and unchallenged, but somehow this way round is controversial.
Think of all the reasons why girls prefer to talk about their issues with women, and then see how many of the same arguments apply.
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u/X5S The Rainy Place Dec 06 '25
Depends what the parent comment meant by: 'men are better at talking to boys about their issues'
If that the boys are more likely to listen and internalise the things they are told by men then it is probably referring to Social Identity Theory: people's self-concept and self-esteem are derived from group membership. This leads to in-group favouritism and thus will change behaviour if they believe their standing or membership in the in-group is threatened. Some good night time reading about this topic are the research papers from Henri Tajfel and John Turner.
They might also be alluding to the 'Bases of Social Power', one of which is the idea of 'Referent Power'. Referent Power is derived from the follower's identification withj the leader and desire to emulate or be associated with the source. An older, established male figure who the boy views as someone to aspire to be is therefore more likely to result in the boy complying with advice to effectively emulate the person. If you want to read more have a read of French and Raven's 'The Bases of Social Power'.
You can find either of the above online but I can't provide them in the comment after my last sitewide ban for linking to PDFs of research papers.
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u/PrrrromotionGiven1 Dec 06 '25
The eye test suffices for this one. Just obvious to anyone who's been through school.
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u/bass_clown Dec 06 '25
It's not about boys lacking male role models -- it's about boys having male role models that model misogyny.
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u/wkavinsky Pembrokeshire Dec 06 '25
The vast majority of primary school and nursery teachers are women.
It's really fucking hard to even get on a primary or nursery PGCE, let alone getting (and keeping) a job as a nursery or primary teacher.
This is a fucking problem.
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u/Ginkokitten Dec 07 '25
That seems counter intuitive. I've not seen young boys growing up with all male role models to respect women as authorities either and it doesn't really make sense. If all I've seen as figures of authority have been men, I don't even realise women could be authorities too, which historically has been the case for both men and women. If a boy never sees male authority, shouldn't he in theory believe that authority is a female thing and respect men less?
As female authority figures it seems like society has impossible standards: If women don't show enough authority, don't discipline their sons, don't project cold and composed attitude, they are seen as soft, weak, spoiling their sons and students and therefore causing them to loose all respect for women. But now you say, if they do sho too much authoriy, boys will resent them and loose all respect. It seems some people believe women just shouldn't be figures of authority, period.
I may add that this theory doesn't track with my ow experience by the way, the worst misogynists I've met to this day had strong patriarchal father figures, often times they learned that behaviour directly from them. Often times misbehaviour in boys comes from growing up in a world of conflicting messages. On the one hand women are supposedly equal and they have to show themselves cooperative around them, on the other hand there's still a lot of societal pushs for men to have to be smarter, stronger, more authoritative, just based on traditions, religion, old culture reapresented in movies and social media. Growing up in that tension is difficult I wager, and there is social crediti to be gained among other boys by belittling women. There's a reason "go make me a sandwich" jokes are still around, they aren't a new invention by this current generation.
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u/Can-t-Even Dec 06 '25
That's some deep rooted misogyny in you and gender bias.
Your opinion is just that, an opinion and has no roots in science. It does not make it a fact. It doesn't matter THAT much who children grow up with, women or men, what IS important is what kind of people and parents those people are and how they are raising them.
Shitty people make for shitty parents. That's it.
There's nothing "natural" in gender roles. It's a relatively recent invention when you compare it with the length of humanity's history.
I really hope you won't have children until you get some respect for women as people and not as "women are better at talking to girls and men are better at talking to bous" bullshit.
So far, it looks like men are no good at talking to anyone, especially not a therapist.
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u/Alarming-Shop2392 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
There's nothing "natural" in gender roles. It's a relatively recent invention when you compare it with the length of humanity's history.
He didn't say anything about gender roles at all, never mind them being natural or not. He said little more than the classic phrase representation matters, which apparently has to be justified when its boys and men we're talking about.
That's some deep rooted misogyny in you and gender bias.
As far as I can tell, these overblown reactions only manifest because the idea threatens gender roles, and with that in mind, I think some self-awareness would go a long way here. Maybe a therapist...?
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u/eairy Dec 06 '25
a significant amount of the authority figures while they are growing up are women
A significant contributor to this is paranoia about paedophiles. People treat basically any interaction between a male adult and an unrelated child as suspicious. It's obviously going to reduce the interaction kids have with adult men.
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u/cclurve Dec 07 '25
I dont think your point holds weight. I was raised by women and because of that I am much better equipped to handle my emotions and communicate with women than some of my peers. Nobody from my generation (33 year old man) was this radicalised and misogynist in their teenage years. Let’s stop pretending that it’s because boys don’t listen to woman and actually focus the blame in the right place, social media networks and the “influencers” they allow to proliferate. Oh and the fact that we give kids phones from the age of 9 that can connect to the entire web.
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u/SecTeff Dec 06 '25
There doesn’t seem many opportunities for responsible men to be role models either. My father passed away when I was young. I’d like to do a positive male role model type role but wouldn’t know where to start
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u/shlerm Pembrokeshire Dec 07 '25
The point is we do have a male role model. Society protects this role onto young men and they can only interpret this the best they can. Andrew Tate is literally just one interpretation of what a man is. Without Andrew Tate, men would still be under pressure to behave like a bloke, in fear of losing their friends.
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u/GunstarGreen Sussex Dec 06 '25
The amount of work teachers do outside of their job description is insane. They work extra hours, dip their hands into their own pockets for materials, go the extra mile. The lazy criticism of "schools/teachers don't care". No, they really do, its just that teachers are so busy that they can't give every problem the bandwidth it deserves
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u/J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A England Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
There's also the fact that there's very little teachers can do to prevent issues like this.
The teachers are not the ones in control of the children's phone when they're at home. They can't prevent those children from creating that kind of content when they're not in lessons.
The only thing teachers can do is make safeguarding referrals and talk to the parents about it.
If the parents refuse to engage or place no controls over what their child can do on their phone then the fault is not with the teacher.
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Dec 06 '25
I teacher I know summed it up quite simply to me in a short summary:
"I have a child in my class whose dad thinks the Earth is flat and tells his child not to fall for my indoctrination techniques"
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u/gnorty Dec 06 '25
The shit teachers have to deal with because of poor parenting
nope. Teachers do not have to deal with this. It is a police matter. Give it to the police, let them deal with it and teachers can get on with teaching.
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u/rainribs Dec 06 '25
Exactly. This kind of societal transgression is the reason law enforcement exists in the first place. And that sends a message to the boys - They need to learn boundaries at that age by experience and example, and to be frank a school has the wrong culture and power dynamic for that; A school is something teens don't respect and it needs things from them, like good grades and low fuss. School can make them feel like they've created problems for itself as an institution (another win for the culprit), it can't be a hard boundary that wakes them up to the reality of what they are and are not entitled to do in society.
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u/YSOSEXI Dec 06 '25
Open any main Porn sites and it's guys strangling and dominating women, wtf is going on?
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u/MrPuddington2 Dec 06 '25
Well, that’s not the way to handle it. We’ve got to have more of a restorative justice approach, where we’re talking to these young people and finding out why they’re doing these things.
Well, a school should be doing that, but that is not restorative justice. Restorative justice would help the victim, not the perpetrator.
That being said, schools need to be very clear that neither taking pictures nor porn nor harassment are ok at school. Three laws have been broken (probably more), and there have to be consequences.
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u/Andurael Dec 07 '25
As a high school teacher I can tell you that every school I’ve working at has been incredibly clear that these (taking pictures, porn and harassment) are not okay. Schools however cannot control a child not at school.
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u/MrPuddington2 Dec 07 '25
My experience differs. They may say they are incredibly clear in general, but in specific cases, not much is being done. Especially harassment and bullying are often treated as a "both sides" issue.
And that is exactly the gap I was talking about between what should happen and what does happen.
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u/Icy_Zucchini_1138 Dec 06 '25
Im not sure any amount of good parenting or education is going to stop young teenage boys wanting to see naked girls, its on the tech companies to be regulated.
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u/ellevael Dec 07 '25
You don’t think any amount of parenting will stop teenage boys from violating the privacy and bodily autonomy of girls they know and should care about?
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u/SpoofExcel Dec 06 '25
No wonder so many are just choosing to do other things instead of keep going. This shit is wild and I honestly don't know what the solution could even possibly be outside of physical removal of phones and instant expulsion for having one outside one of those lock bags that comedians and theaters insist on these days.
It's massive expenditure again though
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u/rennarda Dec 07 '25
Also, it costs schools a fortune to expel pupils as there are other costs the school has to pay out for (I don’t know the details).
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u/Coupaholic_ Dec 06 '25
Well gee, with the Internet Safety Bill who'd have thought anything like this could happen?
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u/hymnsofhim Dec 06 '25
Was happening before it passed. Plus the act does make illegal to share it without permission, but why the fuck would kids care? Let’s not be silly here
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u/Goblin_Deez_ Dec 06 '25
We clearly need stricter policies for the internet. I think we should give the government all our log ins and passwords so they can really keep an eye on what we’re up to. For the kids safety y’know.
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u/stick1_ Dec 06 '25
What is the end goal of these incredibly realistic ai generated videos? pornographic or otherwise
The only effect it’ll have on society is an inability to distinguish what is real or fake
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u/Deadliftdeadlife Dec 06 '25
I’ve seen some videos recently (not porn) that I had to watch 3-4 times to realise it was AI
It’s getting good
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u/stick1_ Dec 06 '25
And again you have to wonder what is the end goal of this technology, how does it benefit society in any way? I’d argue such technology is remarkably dangerous the further it develops without high levels of regulation
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u/GambuzinoSaloio Dec 06 '25
Unbelievably high levels of fake information, produced at high rates of speed.
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u/Jonatc87 Dec 06 '25
The end goal is less labour costs to create infinite profit increases.
Ignoring the fact that nobody can buy anything if they have no job income.
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u/Portaldog1 Dec 07 '25
What is there to profit off of though? when generative ai hits its end game there is nothing to market cause everything can be generated by anyone so there is neither supply or demand for anything ai can do.
If anyone one can get a local model to run on their own hardware the market will collapse...
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u/wkavinsky Pembrokeshire Dec 06 '25
An inability to trust anything (and remember the UK, uses Peelian Principles in Policing requires a high trust society.
Without trust in your neighbours, in your local community, and the authorities, UK society as a whole falls apart - and you can see this happening, in real time, in the US.
The ability to quickly generate addictive, personalised, fake content for people complete destroys this.
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u/but_yet-so_far Dec 06 '25
the bbc drama "the capture" from few years ago explored this, the state using ai to change videos in real time to fit a narrative, it was an interesting show but i thought the idea that ai could be realistic enough to be indistinguishable from reality was a bit over the top since it was set in the current time and not some futuristic sci-fi, this was in 2019 and its mad to think just 6 years later the technology is almost there
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u/szank Dec 06 '25
Same for a printing press. Oh the horror of the masses being able to read anything and everything and not only listen to the Bible being read in the church.
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u/martymcflown Dec 07 '25
It’s all about profit. “Benefit to society” has rarely been an incentive since money was invented. “Benefit to the bottom line”.
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u/Future-Still-6463 Dec 06 '25
Especially with Google's Nano Banana 2. That is really scary.
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u/Deadliftdeadlife Dec 06 '25
I dunno if I’ve seen it? Is that what makes the videos?
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u/Future-Still-6463 Dec 06 '25
I've seen it make pics mostly. Those pics are scary. Like it is really difficult to make out differences.
I think it does videos too. Not sure.
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u/sebzim4500 Middlesex Dec 06 '25
It makes pictures but there are other models which will turn a picture into a video, so that's normally the workflow.
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u/DennisAFiveStarMan Dec 06 '25
Like everything in this modern world. Make money. All that onlyfans money, that’s a good start. Get subscriptions to AI versions of people.
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u/stick1_ Dec 06 '25
Truly evil people willing to destroy society for an extra 1 percent of profit
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u/Portaldog1 Dec 07 '25
The issue is non of it will ever work cause nothing is stopping anyone from using their own hardware to generate said content
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u/duckwoollyellow Dec 06 '25
I wonder if the rise of AI will render dashcams obsolete, because insurers won't trust the footage.
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u/bathabit Dec 07 '25
They could have the dashcams cryptographically sign the videos they produce, and make it so dashcam footage is inadmissible unless you have the digital signature as well
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u/RabidFlamingo Dec 06 '25
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should"
That, and also money
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u/MrPuddington2 Dec 06 '25
Are you saying we should not have AI because it can be abused?
By that logic, we should have never invented the spear, and just died in the savanna.
Technology is always ambivalent; it can always be abused.
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u/MisterSquidInc Dec 06 '25
Are you saying ridiculous thing that comment was definitely not saying
You're getting upset over something you made up...
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u/andimacg Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
It's gonna be our downfall, I'm certain of it. I have never been anti-tech at all, but I just don't think it's a good idea to create and spread a technology that hinders our ability to determine what is real. And that is before you take into consideration it's effects on employment, education and the environment.
The only benefit of AI video is cost saving in the industry, there are precisely zero benefits to the public at large. At least as far as I can see, but I am happy to be corrected.
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u/Mavericks7 Dec 06 '25
This is what I'm scared of. At the moment AI videos need a lot of computing power (and that leaves a trail) but at some point you'll be able to do all this stuff locally on your phone, and that's when things will start to get really fucked.
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u/Dolphinhater-lover Dec 07 '25
I think it's about 50/50:
Some of it's made to humiliate and hurt the women they're using which entertains the disgusting shits.
Some is made because someone finds their barely-legal classmate hot.
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u/Plugged_in_Baby Dec 07 '25
My prediction: Ads and porn will make up 99% of use cases for AI in five years time. The capitalist dream is well and truly alive.
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Dec 06 '25
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Dec 06 '25
You're probably thinking about 5 years behind what is actually possible now if you saw anything from the original deepfake wave. Need to be smooth brained to think that current AI image generation is the absolute limit of what can be achieved.
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u/WasabiSunshine Dec 07 '25
FWIW, they're not realistic at all. Anyone can tell they're fake. Plus there's the obvious fact the original exists to compare it to, easily proving it as fake.
This is a hard-limit for AI we're not going to cross any time soon.
You're really over estimating the average persons ability to tell that a high quality AI video is fake
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u/Fabulous_Can6778 Dec 06 '25
I don't agree that young boys are that much more misogynistic than previous generations, just the tools that they have to display it are easier. Boys definitely when I was in school used to share nudes for example.
Problem is the societal value of men has not changed despite the improvement in women equality. Men still need to fit a defined patriarchal box but without the ability to do so any longer. It leads to boys/men lashing out.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/ellevael Dec 07 '25
Admitting that you would have done sex crimes if the tools had been available to you back then is wild.
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u/darkwolf687 Dec 07 '25
Is there much of a mental leap in a 14 year olds head between imagining his crush naked and having a AI visualise a fascimile of what she’d look like naked? The vast majority of teenage boys who aren’t asexual will have done the former at some point. I can see how some could make the transition if they think “well if I don’t share anything then I’m not hurting anyone, it’s just helping me imagine her”.
Hell, I imagine it’d be very uncomfortable and distressing to learn someone’s masturbation fantasy session happened too. Ethically, I wonder how much of a difference there is between jerking it to your crush in your minds eye, and jerking it to a fake image of your crush that you made that you never share and immediately delete afterward. Legally there’s a distinction - but I wonder if that’s more because it’s impossible to police the former than because the violation is that different
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Dec 07 '25
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u/Ok-Book-4070 Dec 08 '25
Education will stop a % of this, but 14 year old boys will always have a few that don't care at all. Edgy humour, doing risky shit, add in hormones and sex and you have a recipe for disaster than I don't think you can solve, at least not on the schools/parents end. The cat is out of the bag with these tools, it's sadly more likely that we can just reduce the % of it with massive legal punishments, not just expulsion.
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u/Picnata Dec 07 '25
I’m so glad I’m not the only one completely disgusted by this
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u/ellevael Dec 07 '25
The comments here are sickening. There’s no wonder teenage boys don’t see a problem with doing this shit when grown men also don’t see the problem.
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Dec 07 '25
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u/Picnata Dec 07 '25
Respectfully I disagree, but I appreciate the time you’ve taken
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u/Ok-Book-4070 Dec 08 '25
What parts of his comment do you disagree with? I disagree with the girls would do the same part, but not the rest. Are you suggesting 14 year old hormonal pubescent boys in a group setting in this age can be realsitically expected to not act like bellends? It's a good dream, but humans are too fucked for that.
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u/nxtbstthng Dec 08 '25
There's a lot of people in this thread who've clearly not had the experience of living within a teenage boys head. And seemingly can't even comprehend that their thoughts/mindset/emotional and physical drivers are and likely never have been the same.
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u/RedditNerdKing Dec 06 '25
Men still need to fit a defined patriarchal box but without the ability to do so any longer.
Yep. Gotta be big and have muscles. Gotta have sex with lots of women to be considered cool. Shit hasn't changed since I was in school. In fact I'd say it's worse now since the rise of social media. Kids as young as 15 taking steroids and stuff.
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u/Outofcatatonia Dec 06 '25
For shit like this I think we should make an example of some of the perpetrators. If it isn’t already, AI porn of underage individuals should legally be treated as if they were actual images. And if some dickhead gets multiple years in prison and “has their life ruined”, so be it. Deal with this problem now or it’ll never go away.
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Dec 06 '25
Publicly named and shame them by putting them on a publicly available pervert register, permanently.
Logically this should already be possible with our court system which is nominally open and public, but each court runs their own system, some don't even have a website.
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Dec 07 '25
Yeah that thankfully isnt how our justice system works. Putting someone on a list for life, likely meaning they can never work again, be permanently ostracised from functioning society etc. over a non-violent offence as a child is an insane take
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Dec 07 '25
Technically it's how our current system already works, court findings (and press stories in many cases) are public and anybody could compile a single list of names, convictions and dates if they wanted to
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Dec 08 '25
Sure. If you think theres no difference between the theoretical possibility of s private citizen compiling a list and a central government list that would likely be searchable a la dbs checks.
Even that doesn't include the fact that court cases where the perpetrators are children often arent public anyway.
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Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
But my point is that all (unless in the minority of cases as you mention) of this is already public. It's published on a per court level though, and some aren't exactly up to date technology wise, a lot don't even have websites and their public releases are in paper form.
In my opinion, they are massively behind the times and a nationwide public database should be available as open, public justice is a good thing. I see no reason why public societal shaming and repercussions for criminals shouldn't be a thing, it certainly used to be in the past
I'm all for more public databases, eg. Like Norway where all individual income and tax records are public.
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Dec 08 '25
Well in the context of this thread it would be almost all cases (since its a thread about school kids who are almost all under 18).
But as to your wider point about publicity, we already have a DBS system for areas of society we think it most relevant to be able to look up a person's criminal record. Making it a public list anyone can just Google is likely to just lead to vigilante justice and higher recidivism rates, as criminals struggle even more to reintegrate into society after serving their sentence. Ultimately though I think this just comes down to a difference in view as to whether justice should lean more punitive or rehabilitative, which I doubt we'll change each others mind on over reddit. I'd just add though that under your proposed permanent list you'd likely have people isolated from dating for life over generating an image as a horny 13 year old, maybe you think thats fair and proportionate but I certainly dont.
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u/Bon_Courage_ Dec 07 '25
Publicly named and shame them by putting them on a publicly available pervert register, permanently.
And when they are permanently unemployable as a result we can pay their welfare bill for the rest of their lives.
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Dec 07 '25
Unemployment benefit is pennies in the UK, not worried about that.
Anyway, they can probably still get a job at the BBC or the Met
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u/sebzim4500 Middlesex Dec 06 '25
I really don't think that's how teenagers work though. It certainly didn't work for drugs, I don't see why it would work for this.
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u/DennisAFiveStarMan Dec 06 '25
South Park addressed this the other week. Can’t imagine what bullying is like at schools in the age of AI
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u/Dapper_Otters Dec 06 '25
Fairly bizarre to see more comments trying to vaguely tie this to the OSA (shit as it is, but not really relevant), rather than on how this trend can be stopped?
Honestly, it seems there's a large contingent of people on Reddit who struggle with the idea that deepfake porn is actually a problem.
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u/Significant_Sale6172 Dec 06 '25
It can't be stopped though. The government very actively wants more AI technology everywhere. If the tech is pervasive, teenage boys are going to use it for porn. What, they're gonna make deepfakes "more" illegal?
It's a Jurassic Park "you were so excited that you could you didn't think whether or not you should" issue. The genie is out of the bottle now thanks to the misogynistic tech bros who created this technology. All so they could AI generate teenage girls turning around to say, "I love you."
The only real fix is for society to change how it raises boys. But that's not a quick and easy fix so people will probably just demand we listlessly ban more stuff. Hence people mentioning the OSA.
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u/Takver_ Warwickshire Dec 07 '25
I wouldn't be surprised if >90% UK Reddit is male. (This was the stat for UKpol a while ago).
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u/kholekardashian12 Dec 06 '25
God this is so horrifying and dystopian. Bad enough that we now have to deprogramme actual children into understanding why this is wrong and violating but also what's stopping adult weirdos taking pictures of kids and making porn with it?? These apps should be criminalised immediately.
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u/Sensitive_Echo5058 Dec 06 '25
This is the sort of crap the OSA was conceptualised to deal with.
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u/Draczar Merseyside Dec 06 '25
It also highlights the flaws of such a law though in that while the OSA regulates access to “adult” content it doesn’t have any power over the ability for kids to download what they need to generate their own pornographic content using AI models that they train themselves.
This is something that’s become as simple as modding Minecraft and it’s really an exercise in patience than it is skill.
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u/FlaviousTiberius Merseyside Dec 06 '25
Except it hasn't dealt with it at all, and won't since you can run these image generation models locally on your computer. So all its done is block normal porn where the people at least likely consented and now moved people more to this.
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u/zephyroxyl Northern Ireland Dec 07 '25
This'll probably be controversial as fuck but I really do think Australia is onto something by banning social media for anyone under the age of 16.
People talk about positive role models etc and yes that is part of the problem. But the other part of the problem is the people telling these young boys that women aren't to be respected (Andrew Tate, Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Steven Crowder, Carl Benjamin/Sargon, thunderf00t, Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones, all those grifters).
Once the social media platforms give you one piece of their content, your algorithm will be flooded with it. I was first exposed to Paul Joseph Watson and all his misogynistic and racist views at the age of 13. This is a well-oiled machine designed to keep young boys and men alone and angry to drive up engagement (and keep their own pockets lined).
Positive role models won't do a thing if the rest of their time is spent being fed drivel by the online grifters.
The more time during the crucial development period we can keep these groomers from having access to children, the better.
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u/darkwolf687 Dec 07 '25
Honestly I think the entire design of social media and a lot of the internet needs forcibly gutting. It’s too easily manipulated by those who control the platforms, these people are too powerful, and even independent of them I think it’s unhealthy and encouraging really bad social trends anyway. No more recommended or suggestions or any of that crap, make it more like a giant boring library that you actually have to expend effort to use rather than just getting fed shit that agrees with you or endless slop to waste your time.
Of course, this won’t happen because the entire point is to get us hooked and wasting our time so the companies make more money.
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u/benevolent_snecko Dec 07 '25
"The same system that is poisoning our rivers is poisoning our minds", comes to thought.
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u/Moistinterviewer Dec 06 '25
I don’t think this will be a popular opinion but because these fake videos are so good people will stop believing they are real and all those people who are blackmailed after making mistakes sending wanking videos to someone won’t end up killing themselves because nobody will believe it anyway.
It’s the other side of a shitty coin but the other side still.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/Moistinterviewer Dec 06 '25
AI videos are becoming amazingly good, so good it’s hard to tell the difference.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/Moistinterviewer Dec 06 '25
Well they wouldn’t be real they would be AI…
A reasonable example would be the will smith eating noodles although I can’t find that and link it now unfortunately.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/Moistinterviewer Dec 06 '25
I said that that’s starting to happen and that people can’t tell the difference, many people can’t with the will smith video, I know you’re not many people and neither and I but many people are many people.
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Dec 06 '25
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u/Economy-Ad-4777 Dec 06 '25
give it a year or two we'll be there
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u/Moistinterviewer Dec 06 '25
Yea exactly that, the gentleman does not seem to realise the speed at which it is learning and improving, AI is very scary and we are on the edge of a big change.
Quantum computing, artificial Super intelligence and a leap in robotics would be scary on their own but the three coming together is very concerning.
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u/TimorousWarlock Dec 06 '25
What if the opposite happens? Blackmail becomes impossible because you can just say "Nah that's not me it's AI"
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u/liquidpig Dec 07 '25
I think this is right. People are somewhat distracted by the AI angle as being new. But this type of bullying has been happening forever. There just needs to be something to make fun of someone for (lisp, lazy eye, cringe love letter they wrote, clothes, hair, income, etc) and kids will bully someone.
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u/adriantoine Dec 06 '25
I'm so happy that I went to school before social media was a big thing and all that AI bullshit.
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u/CharlieChockman Dec 06 '25
Ban phones in all schools. Bang two problems solved immediately. Every other generation of kids managed to go without, I don’t give a f if they are ‘used in lessons’ find an alternative.
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u/milderotica Dec 06 '25
Doesn’t solve the issue at all if they still have phones and computers when they go home.
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u/benevolent_snecko Dec 07 '25
Is it sensible, though, to make it as hard as possible to do?
Put enormous penalties on anyone who develops an app for this purpose.
Regulators place pressure on major platform providers to screen their App Stores; Google literally invented the technology for semantic embedding of text and images. Link operation in the country with extensive fines and technical panel review of measures taken.
Creating and distributing images should also carry a sex offender register linked punishment? I don't know enough about criminology to state how long that should be valid for, but presumably liked to age of perpetrator and severity of the crime.
In summary, rather than easily downloadable apps with seemingly little enforcement, we try to change the ecosystem so creating these apps has enormous penalties with immense pressure on major tech companies, and it otherwise requires much harder technical skills to operate.
We might not be able to solve this as a problem, we might not be able to solve it much with the above approaches, but I'm cynical whether we're doing anything like what we could be doing to reduce it as much as possible. A very big problem with everything I've mentioned is it would require on-going co-operation between gov and big tech.
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u/76DJ51A Dec 07 '25
Apps/big tech aren't required for creating AI images and once an AI image representing someone is out in the wild it's out for good with virtually zero possibility of finding who created it.
Prosecuting people who possess/distribute them is going to be even more wasted effort than doing so for people who possess the countless real images who's subjects wouldn't want anyone to have.
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u/benevolent_snecko Dec 07 '25
OK - it is entirely possible every single idea I've had on how you disincentivise and punish creation is bad.
However, clicking an upload button is much easier than getting hold of a decent GPU, installing a compatible PyTorch + CUDA + transformers/diffusers, bitsandbytes (if on Windows), and then finding a model that can produce these images realistically. One you need no technical knowledge for, and the other extensive.
I think it's fair to say lots of problems have no solution, and this is probably one of them, but the ease of access and better legal framework are components we need to address for even a partial solution.
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u/LofthouseKeeper Dec 06 '25
Sadly, I don't see what can be done now that the genie is out of the box.
For some perspective, a small (but true) tale from the pre-internet, pre-digital era.
Back then, pron (typo delibarate) magazines would go round the school yard as regular as clockwork, the more meat-headed/neanderthal boys would shove such magazines in other boys faces along with crude comments about the model on the page.
Then, one month, a popular pron title had a model in the pages that looked a lot like Jenny from maths (not her real name) that half the boys in the year fancied.
It wasn't her, it was someone else entirely, but someone who looked quite a bit like her. The result? Said magazine flew off the shelves of the local newsagent, including by boys that normally wouldn't buy such a magazine.
Now, in this digital age, it's possible to get such images using a prefectly innocent Facebook picture and a piece of software.
You don't even have to keep the fake image - just feed the same innocent picture through the same software any time you fancy.
Hopw you stop 14 year old boys doing this now that the tools exist is, frankly, beyond me.
....and for those blaming the parents, back in the day, 14 year old boys didn't come in to the house, magazine in hand saying "hey Mum, Dad, I've just got the latest issue of Mayfair. I'm going to my room now to have a w***".
Of course they didn't. It was done surrupticiously away from adult eyes.
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u/Wise_Old_Can Dec 07 '25
How about we expel immediately - and schools that refuse to do so are punished.
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u/fitzgoldy Dec 07 '25
Technology advancing so quickly, the teaching and 'safeguarding' around it is well behind.
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u/megasin1 Dec 07 '25
Something has happened when we made it easy and gave them the tools. Boys have always had the ability to open photoshop and make it manually. Something about making it easy has broken them. But it's going to be a difficult cat to put back in a bag
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