Students use artificial intelligence in school with impunity. Some use it to write essays or complete math homework. Others may use it to cheat on exams. But one specific and troubling use of AI by students is on the rise—creating fake, nonconsensual videos or images of students and educators.
The rapid spread of AI-generated deepfakes created by students nationwide has alarmed educators and parents. Schools have struggled to find the right response to disciplining students who create deepfakes and protecting victims, causing mental and emotional stress to students whose images are manipulated in these videos.
Several states have now passed legislation to recognize that creating and distributing nonconsensual, fake, and intimate images and videos is a criminal offense. In May 2025, President Donald Trump also signed into law the Take It Down Act, which compels social media companies to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a verified request.
Experts argue that efforts to punish perpetrators have outweighed initiatives to prevent deepfakes and address victims’ concerns. Any school-level policies that address AI- generated deepfakes should also prepare administrators and teachers to support students when they are targeted, said Kristin Woelfel, a policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that advocates for online civil liberties.
“It’s not just like ‘You’ll get in trouble if you do this.’ It should also be like, ‘Here is who you report something like this to.’ Even the initial reaction when a student tries to report something can be very consequential to how they like move past it,” said Woelfel.
Education Week spoke with experts and school leaders about the necessary ingredients to create and implement policies handling AI-generated deepfakes. Here’s what they said.
Tap into existing policies
Several school districts now include deepfakes within their cyberbullying policies. Last year, Illinois also passed legislation that directs all schools to update their cyberbullying policies to address deepfake cases.
Daniel Krause, the principal of Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Ill., said his district updated its cyberbullying policy with the definition of deepfakes and the legal consequences of creating and sharing them.
“It will help to clarify any confusion and potential arguments that [cyberbullying laws] would not apply,” said Krause.
Beyond definitions, the amended policy clarifies that it’s a criminal offense to create and share nonconsensual images and video.
These changes are a good opportunity for schools to be clear with students and parents about the variety of consequences that can occur.
“It’s not just that you can get in trouble at school; you can also get in trouble with actual law enforcement. Hopefully, by telling people that, they might be less inclined to do it,” said Woelfel.
Education is prevention
As awkward or intrusive as it may seem, school leaders need to address deepfakes head on. Krause has addressed AI misuse in his back-to-school messaging to students and parents. He’s also going to bring up deepfakes when he speaks to students about safety, and why it’s crucial for students to report instances when AI is misused to bully or harass other students or teachers.
School leaders are trying to empower students to fight back against the spread of deepfakes. Jeff Wardle, the principal of Buffalo Grove High School in Buffalo Grove, Ill., will focus more on positive digital citizenship norms in the new school year, and link them to the school’s core values of empathy, bravery, and kindness.
“If we don’t want this in our school, then we need [students] to be brave and say, ‘Hey, we don’t do that here. That doesn’t happen here. We don’t do this to each other,’” Wardle said.
Wardle has also been working on a presentation for parents to inform them about the new legislation, define deepfakes, and identify apps or online platforms students use to create AI images. Parents can become partners and reinforce good digital habits at home as well, said Wardle.
It’s difficult to completely repair the psychological and emotional hurt caused by a sexually explicit deepfake, but education could help prevent more instances from cropping up, Wardle added.
Focus on restoration
Schools need to have established protocols when a student or teacher reports that a deepfake is being circulated.
Wardle has a point person—an associate principal—who can quickly act on information. Protocols—like asking teachers and students to not share or save the image or video—are well established in other policies, said Woelfel from CDT.
Both Krause and Wardle said they will involve their school resource officer and local law enforcement if they think an investigation is warranted.
Wardle emphasized, though, that legal consequences aren’t the end of the process. He’s tried to mediate restorative conversations between students, one of whom may have bullied or harassed the other. Wardle calls these “reentry meetings” when suspended students or those impacted address each other before returning to the same classroom or schedule.
“I hope we incorporate restorative practices, even if there is an outside law enforcement component, and try to restore some level of understanding of the hurt that is involved, the damage that can be done, and bring the human aspect [back].”
