SINGAPORE – The police are investigating deepfake nude photos of Singapore Sports School (SSP) students that were created and spread by other students.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, school principal Ong Kim Soon said SSP is “aware of the incident involving the creation and sharing of deepfake photos by our student-athletes”.
“The school does not condone such harmful behaviour,” he said, adding that it has launched an investigation and lodged a police report.
The police, in response to queries from ST, confirmed that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing.
A reader who identified himself as a parent of a victim had alerted ST in an e-mail on Nov 12 about the deepfake nude images that were being circulated.
“Many parents of affected female students in Singapore Sports School are making police reports about deepfake nude photos of their daughters generated by male students from the school,” the parent said.
When contacted, the parent said that female teachers were also targeted, and that the school has offered affected students counselling.
“As we are not allowed to see the photos, we can still cope emotionally, though we believe the perpetrators should not be allowed in the same school compound ever,” said the parent.
Mr Ong said that the school is unable to share more information as police investigations are ongoing.
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In a WhatsApp message sent to parents, the school said that its discipline committee is working with the police to address this matter, and that it will inform parents of any “significant developments”.
The police have been provided with website links associated with the case, and they are assisting in requesting the removal of all related images from these sites, the message said.
“All students involved are being interviewed by the police, and their mobile devices have been temporarily confiscated for forensic examination,” it said. This is to identify and remove any remaining inappropriate content.
Devices will be cleared of such content before being returned to the students, the school said, adding that the police have asked for permission to conduct phone interviews with some of the affected students.
According to the message, the school has started to mete out disciplinary actions, including caning some students, sports trip bans, and suspensions from school, training and boarding, where appropriate.
One victim’s father told news outlet CNA that a group of boys started generating and circulating deepfake nude images of their female schoolmates in June. He said he was informed about the case on Nov 11 during a call with his daughter’s mentor.
He told CNA that the perpetrators used WhatsApp to communicate, and there were two groups – one generating the photos, while the other circulating them. He added that some of the boys were caned in private on Nov 11.
This incident follows growing concerns about deepfake-on-demand services becoming more publicly available, allowing users to generate realistic deepfakes within seconds – and often for free – simply by uploading a picture of someone’s face to an online website that uses artificial intelligence to combine the picture with a digitally rendered body.
Deepfake nudes are fake images or videos where a person’s face is placed on explicit content, such as photos or videos, using AI technology.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
