Teen boys accused of using AI to make sexual photos of classmates

Police say two 14-year-old Edmonton boys used AI to make sexualized images of their classmates. CTV News Edmonton's Curtis Goodrum reports.

Two 14-year-old boys in Edmonton are accused of using artificial intelligence to make sexualized images of their classmates.

Both boys were charged on June 1 with making and possessing child sexual exploitation materials and voyeurism.

Several girls – potentially more than 10 – were targeted, according to police.

The boys are believed to have fed non-consensual photos they had taken of their peers at school, as well as photos from their social media accounts, to AI software.

Currently, the evidence suggests they shared the images with each other, but not more broadly.

“None of the victims involved consented to anything (or) any changes made to the photos, and did not consent to any of the actions taken by the two boys,” said Staff Sgt. Alison Church with the Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT).

Students who heard the images existed complained to a teacher, who called police in March.

Neither of the accused nor the junior high school they attend are being named to protect the privacy of the victims, although ALERT said the school is cooperating fully with the investigation.

As the forensic analysis of the boys’ devices has not been completed, ALERT also could not say which AI software was used or how many images were created.

“I think there is a misconception that because it’s AI it’s not real, that the impact is not significant….The impact is just as significant as if these pictures were taken by these kids and shared and then leaked,” said lead investigator Const. Stephanie Bosch.

“The trust is broken now. Control is taken away from them. You can start to think about how that would impact a teenager, especially considering it impacts how their peers may view them. They have done nothing wrong.”

More education needed

This is the second such incident in Alberta that ALERT has investigated. In December, a Calgary high school student was accused of making similar images of girls from local high schools.

Officials say there needs to be more education in homes and schools about the full breadth of online harms, even as Canada considers restricting social media use for people under the age of 16.

“We have kids now that are too scared to post on social media because they’re paranoid that this could happen again,” Bosch said.

“For these kids, it’s so important for them to have those communities online to express themselves. And for that to be taken away from them by these actions of these two boys, I think that’s an incredible injustice.”

The police agency, as well as the Zebra Child and Youth Advocacy Centre in Edmonton, which helps police conduct interviews with youth and is providing support to the victims in this case alongside Sherwood Park’s Saffron Centre, acknowledged more systematic change would require updating the judicial system and regulating tech companies.

But they said it was important to start somewhere.

“We have to be talking to our kids about how this is criminal behavior. We can’t be taking images of our classmates or of our peers and creating new images of them, because yes, there are real world consequences to that,” Bosch said.

“These are serious crimes,” Church added. “You will be held responsible, regardless of your age.”

The Alberta government says Bill 25, An Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from Classrooms and Amend the Education Act, Education Act codes would strengthen protections against “all forms of violence in schools, including physical, sexual, verbal, psychological and online harm.”

“Students are supported in learning about consent, personal safety, and responsible digital behaviour through curriculum and school programming, and schools work closely with families to reinforce those expectations,” read a statement from education minister Demetrios Nicolaides.

He also noted the technology and innovation ministry was working to update legislation protecting victims of non-consensual intimate photo distribution.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum and Darcy Seaton