Winnipeg high school reports 'explicitly altered' photos of students shared online

A high school in Winnipeg is warning parents that explicit photos of its students taken from social media and then altered with artificial intelligence are circulating online.

Collège Béliveau in the Louis Riel School Division sent the letter saying officials became aware after students came forward about the doctored photos late on Monday.

“The original photos appear to have been gathered from publicly accessible social media and explicitly altered,” the letter, signed by principal Andrea Kolody and vice-principal Jennifer Oldfield, reads.

A spokesperson for the Louis Riel School Division says students used artificial intelligence to generate the images, which were then shared, saying this is a first for the division.

The spokesperson says they can confirm 17 images have been discovered.

“We are aware of people saying there are others, but we don’t know how many in total are out there,” they wrote in an email to CTV News Winnipeg.

The letter says the division has been investigating the incident, consulting with its senior leadership team, its information service department, and clinical services. They’ve also reached out to the Winnipeg Police Service and Cybertip for outside help.

“While we cannot assume that we have evidence of all the doctored photos, we will directly contact the caregivers of those students for whom we do. All images received by the school will be securely uploaded to Cybertip, through Project Arachnid, which specializes in the removal of these types of online images,” Kolody and Oldfield said.

A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service told CTV News that Counter Exploitation Unit is investigating the report of the Distribution of Intimate images.

Kolody and Oldfield said the school’s student services and social work teams are in place to help students impacted by the incident. The school has also recognized the need for more education regarding “digital citizenship” and working on organizing learning opportunities in the classroom.

Stephen Sauer, director of Cybertip.ca with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said artificial intelligence has evolved to allow users to create whatever images they want. That has worsened a problem that has existed for several years.

“We have seen imagery being photoshopped for years,” he said, adding photos can be altered to make it look like a child is involved in sexual situations.

Given some of the victims may be under the age of 18, Sauer said the images could be deemed child sex abuse material. He said kids might not be aware of the seriousness of the situation.

“Whether or not it’s a real representation of that child or a digital representation of that child, it is child sexual abuse material, and so there are legal consequences for that,” he said.

Sauer suggested parents speak with their kids about proper Internet usage.

“Talk about the gravity of what is and isn’t child sexual abuse material and what is respectful behaviour in terms of your interactions with your peers, and how you utilize other people’s imagery would be really important,” he said.