DPS Dhamaka: Top Bengaluru school in eye of storm as AI-generated nude pics of class 9 students emerge online

A parent of a class 9 student of Delhi Public School, Bangalore North has filed a complaint with the city’s Cyber Crime Cell that AI-generated nude images of her teenage daughter and at least one other student have been posted online.

The incident came to light on May 24, when morphed images of the 15-year-old girls started circulating on the school’s unofficial Instagram group which has over 50 members.

Also Read: DPS Bangalore North suspends class 9 students over morphed nudes of classmates; arrests likely

It is still not known if the images, generated using an artificial intelligence tool, have been posted on any other websites.

Speaking to Education Post, one of the victims, said she was “shocked and deeply affected” by the incident. “The Instagram group, where the pictures were posted, is viewed by all my classmates. It is very embarrassing to face them now. Even though I know it is in no way my fault, incidents like this leave a very long-lasting scar,” she said.

The girl said that the perpetrators, who have yet to be identified, extracted images of her face from her Instagram page before creating AI-generated nudes and posting them on the group using a fake ID.

“Aside from me, another girl from my class was also targeted,” she said, adding that the other victim has not reported the incident because she does not want her parents to know.

“I made it a point to tell my parents that such a thing has happened, and they immediately told me to file a police complaint. I don’t know who the culprits are, but they are surely students of my class. No one else could get access to my private Instagram page from where they extracted images of my face,” said the girl.

The girl’s mother said she will not rest until the culprits are brought to book.

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“These incidents are common no doubt, but you never imagine something like this could happen to your kid. She is really upset, and feels embarrassed to face her friends. I will ensure that whoever is responsible will not get away with it,” the mother said.

“I just can't get over things that were written about my daughter. I want the culprits caught and taught a lesson that they cannot speak about girls like that. It seems clear their upbringing has been horrible. I want to meet their parents and give them a piece of my mind,” she said.  

 An official of the Cyber Cell unit in Bengaluru confirmed receipt of the grievance – vide number 21605240024600 – and said that an investigation is underway.

“We are trying to track the IP number of the device that was used to upload the images, which have now been deleted,” the official, who did not wish to be named, told Education Post while assuring that the Cyber Cell department takes such cases “very seriously, especially when the victims are minors.”

Honey Chandra, Senior Mistress at the Delhi Public School, North Bangalore admitted that similar controversies involving her school’s students have been reported in the past, but she had “not been intimated” about the latest incident.

“This is a major issue. We will do all we can to get to the bottom of it. We have set up a committee to deal with such cases. We will be speaking to the parents of all parties involved and depending on the outcome of the internal investigation, we will take action,” Chandra told Education Post.

The school, which has over 4,000 students and was recently ranked No. 1 in the country by the Indian Institutional Ranking Framework (IIRF), also holds mandatory counselling sessions for the victims, she added.

As per India’s IT Rules, social media platforms must have grievance officers to receive complaints about morphed images, following which the platforms have about 24 hours to remove deepfakes.

With the emergence of artificial intelligence, several women in India, particularly celebrities, have in the past spoken out about being targeted with explicit deepfakes.

Even though it is fairly easy to create content featuring real people’s faces and bodies using AI-powered text-to-images generators, social media giants are falling behind when it comes to identifying and removing such content, per experts.

Last month, Meta’s oversight board invited comments from the general public while investigating two cases where AI-generated nude images of public figures were posted on Instagram and Facebook.

The oversight board admitted that deepfakes were becoming a “problem” in the country.

Meta said that once the board has deliberated such cases and submitted the comments, it will share its findings, which would include policy recommendations for Meta.