LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Two teenage boys who used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of their classmates were put on probation Wednesday and placed in the custody of their parents.
The boys, who were 14 at the time, admitted earlier this month that they made 59 child sex abuse images. Prosecutors said they morphed photos of girls, many from Instagram, with virtual images of adults depicting nudity or sexual activity.
Some of the victims were their classmates at Lancaster Country Day School, west of Philadelphia. Police said in court documents that a woman reported that her daughter said a fellow student had been “taking photographs of students and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to portray the female juvenile students as being nude.”
Wednesday’s disposition hearing before Lancaster County Common Pleas Court Judge Leonard Brown III was the juvenile court version of a sentencing hearing.
Along with probation, the boys were given 60 hours of community service each. If they don’t have any additional legal problems, Brown said the case could expunged after two years. They were also ordered not to have contact with the victims and must pay an unspecified amount of restitution.
As he imposed his sentence, Brown said he had not heard either boy apologize or take responsibility for their actions. If they were adults, he said, they probably would be headed for state prison.
During the proceedings, the boys declined several opportunities to comment to the judge. Afterwards, one of the boys refused to comment outside court.
“This has been a regrettable, long torturous process for everyone involved,” Heidi Freese, an attorney for one of the boys. “There were very interesting, underlying legal issues surrounding the charges in this case and those will be decided on a different day in a different case.”
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has said the case “exemplifies the dark side of modern technology and social media.”
“The conduct involved a weaponization of technology to victimize unsuspecting children who had photos online. It goes without saying that the impact on the victims is nothing short of devastation,” Sunday said in a release earlier this month.
The resolution of the Pennsylvania case comes days after three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI, claiming the company’s Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images. The high school students are seeking class-action status to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of people who were similarly victimized as minors.
The scandal in Pennsylvania in 2024 led to a student protest, the departure of school leaders and criminal charges against the two teenagers.
Nadeem Bezar, a Philadelphia lawyer who represents at least 10 of the victims, said Tuesday he expects to file a claim “against the school and anybody else we think has culpability in these deepfakes being created and disseminated.”
He said he has not yet seen the photos but expects the legal process to determine “exactly when and where and how the school knew, how the boys created these images, what platforms they used to create these images and how they were disseminated.”
Bezar said the girls’ reactions have varied, and for some it was traumatizing.
“You’re talking about teenage young women who are goal-driven, doing well in school, trying to do everything they can to just sort of fit in and find their way through life at that young age, where everything matters,” Bezar said.
As AI has become accessible and powerful, lawmakers across the country have passed laws aimed at barring deepfakes.
President Donald Trump signed the Take it Down Act last year, making it illegal to publish intimate images including deepfakes without consent, and requiring websites and social media sites to remove such material within 48 hours of being notified by a victim.
Forty-six states now have laws addressing deepfakes, with legislation introduced in the remaining four — Alaska, Missouri, New Mexico and Ohio — according to the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. ____
Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.
