A high school in London, Ont., has notified parents and guardians of a “disturbing situation” impacting some of its students involving the distribution of fake nude photos.
The London District Catholic School Board provided a copy of the letter that went out to the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School community this week to Global News, adding that the board has “not had reports about this at any of our other schools.”
In the letter, the St. Thomas Aquinas administration said that “over the last several days, some of our students’ pictures have been copied from their social media sites” and then “altered using AI” to make the students appear naked.
“These photos have been distributed through group chats. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult and challenging situation for our young students and can have lasting adverse effects for them,” the letter reads. “The creation and distribution of this material could result in disciplinary measures.”
The letter added that police have been contacted and have attended the school as part of the investigation. As well, the administration encourages parents and guardians to “speak to your children about the dangers of social media and artificial intelligence as well as the inappropriateness of distributing these types of images to their group chats.”
The London Police Service has confirmed to Global News that it is “aware of the incident” and “investigating” but would not provide any further details.
With files from Global News’ Emily Passfield.