Middle school students caught sharing deepfake pornography made from classmates' photos

Police have arrested a group of middle school boys who created and circulated deepfake pornographic content by superimposing female classmates' faces onto explicit images.

The Gyeonggi Southern Regional Police Agency's cyber investigation unit said Wednesday it had identified eight male students at a middle school in the province and referred them to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office and the Suwon Family Court on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, which covers the production and distribution of fabricated sexual imagery.

Of the eight students, four who were at least 14 years old at the time of the offenses — and therefore subject to criminal prosecution — were referred to prosecutors. The remaining four, who fell under the category of juveniles under criminal age (ages 10 to 13), were sent to the juvenile division of the family court. The referral process was carried out in stages from late March through June this year.

The students are accused of taking everyday photos posted by female classmates on social media and combining them with other images to produce and share deepfake pornographic content between May and August last year. The number of confirmed victims has reached more than 10.

The investigation found that the students had shared the fabricated content among themselves through social media, and no evidence of wider distribution was found. A police official said the investigation concluded with different specific charges applied to each student depending on the degree of their involvement — whether they produced, viewed or possessed the fabricated material.