A veteran primary school teacher has spoken out about the devastating impact of deepfake pornography after one of her eight-year-old pupils created a graphic AI-generated video depicting her in a sexual threesome with colleagues.
The Disturbing Discovery
The teacher, identified only as Megan, had worked at a London primary school for over five years when the incident occurred in 2021. She described the pupil, a girl in Year Four, as a "strange character" who seemed older than her years. The situation began when the child approached Megan in the playground to say she had found a picture of her online via a Google search.
Weeks later, parents raised the alarm about an explicit video circulating in a children's WhatsApp group. The footage, created using photographs taken from the school website, falsely showed Megan and two other teachers engaged in a sexual act. Investigations revealed the girl who had earlier spoken to Megan was the creator, while another child had shared it.
A Lack of Support and Consequences
The school's response proved deeply traumatic for Megan. While the child who shared the video was "mortified" and made to apologise, the girl who created it "showed no remorse", reportedly sniggering during meetings with her parents. Megan never saw the video herself, as it had been deleted from phones by the time complaints were made.
Megan felt isolated as colleagues featured in the video were reluctant to involve their union or pursue the matter. The headteacher dismissed her concerns with the phrase, "They're just children". No meaningful consequences were imposed on the pupil; she was not excluded and was not encouraged to apologise. A single meeting with her mother was the only action taken.
It emerged the child had prior access to inappropriate content, having previously made videos of herself with a sex toy and pretending to pole dance.
Broader Context and Legal Action
Megan, whose confidence was shattered, left the school a year later. She now advocates for the UK to follow Australia's lead in banning under-16s from social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to prevent similar abuse.
Her case comes as regulator Ofcom launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's platform X. This follows findings that its Grok AI tool was used to create "undressed images of people and sexualised images of children". Ofcom stated it is assessing "any potential compliance issues" and that tackling illegal online harm remains an "urgent priority".
Under UK law, creating or sharing non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material is illegal, including AI-generated sexual deepfakes. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall recently told MPs that legislation outlawing the creation of such content is now in force, describing these images as "weapons of abuse" disproportionately targeting women and girls.
