Teachers Are Being Targeted With AI Deepfake Porn. Schools Often Have No Idea What to Do.

Key points

• Luis DeSantiago, a substitute teacher in Los Banos, California, discovered an AI-generated deepfake, a fake image created by artificial intelligence that replaces someone's face or body, of himself in lingerie on TikTok on 12 March.
• Wired AI spoke with four teachers who say students used AI tools to create sexualised images or videos of them without their consent.
• One student who admitted creating the image received only in-school suspension; the image continued to spread on TikTok and Snapchat.
• The federal Take It Down Act makes it a crime to publish non-consensual intimate images online, including computer-generated ones.
• Employment lawyers say schools have a legal duty to create a harassment-free workplace, but there is no set rulebook on how to do it.

Luis DeSantiago was mid-shift at a coffee shop when his phone started buzzing. A barista colleague had seen something on social media. Her cousin wanted to know if the person in the photo was DeSantiago.

He was not worried at first. Inappropriate pictures get removed, he thought. Then he saw it.

"When I finally saw the image, that's when it felt like a punch to the gut," DeSantiago told Wired AI. Someone had taken a mirror selfie he once posted and, using AI, replaced his work uniform with lingerie and posed him suggestively. The original photo was completely mundane. The new one was not.

DeSantiago is a substitute teacher in Los Banos, California. What followed was months of back-and-forth with school administrators, parents, and police across two separate schools.

What exactly happened?

DeSantiago traced the image to a student from the middle school where he regularly worked. He reported it to the assistant principal. That same evening he found a second account on TikTok impersonating him, using his slightly misspelled name and his own photo as the profile picture.

One student admitted to making the image and received in-school suspension. The image spread anyway, appearing on Snapchat, then turning up at the high school DeSantiago transferred to. During one class, a student AirDropped, which means wirelessly sent to his phone, a copy of the same fake image.

"If these students aren't afraid of generating and posting these images of me," DeSantiago wrote to the principal, "I am concerned of what they may be circulating privately through text messages and group chats. Keep in mind this could include other students as well."

By the time this article was published, DeSantiago said he does not feel safe returning to the district.

Is this just one school?

No. Wired AI spoke with three other teachers facing the same problem. One middle school teacher in her mid-twenties described a TikTok account that used an AI-generated video of her face, moving unnaturally, with a voice that was not hers, discussing sexual acts. The account was taken down after students reported it. The same student then escalated to in-person harassment, including threatening language directed at her and apparently AI-generated photos of the assistant principal posted to TikTok.

In a separate case, students found public photos of a teacher in her sixties and manipulated them to show her committing sex acts, sharing them in a private Snapchat group.

What does the law actually say?

Clearer than the school rules, at least. The federal Take It Down Act makes it a crime to publish non-consensual intimate images online, including computer-generated ones. Employment lawyer Donna Ballman told Wired AI that a student creating and sharing sexual images of a teacher is "a clear case of sexual harassment in the workplace," and that schools have a legal duty to address it.

The problem, Ballman says, is that there is "no blueprint." Schools are not even required to tell a victimised teacher how a student was disciplined. They just have to make the environment safe again. Many, so far, have struggled to do that.

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, says it prohibits sharing AI-generated content to harass or humiliate others and has reporting processes in place. TikTok did not comment.

Common questions

Can a teacher report this content directly to the platform?

Yes. Both TikTok and Snapchat have in-app reporting tools for sexual or harassing content. Reporting directly, rather than relying on the school to do it, is often faster; in one case a teacher's students reported the account themselves and it came down quickly.

What should a teacher do if this happens to them?

Document everything with screenshots before reporting, since content can disappear. Report to the platform, the school principal, and local police. A lawyer who handles employment or harassment cases can also explain what the school is legally required to do on your behalf.