Police warn Alberta parents of rise in AI-generated deepfakes: ALERT
With schools soon being dismissed for the summer, ALERT's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit is warning parents about an emerging online trend of AI images, videos and audio recordings in child sexual abuse investigations.
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Defined as 'deepfakes,' these videos, images and recordings look or sound completely realistic but have been altered using AI, according to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
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Faces can be super-imposed, expressions can be manipulated, and other elements can be combined to produce something new and to show someone doing or saying something that didn't occur, or wasn't said.
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As a member of the ICE's community engagement team, Const. Stephanie Bosch said a lot of the discussions held around AI deep fakes are being generated in schools and being used as a form of cyber bullying and harassment.
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'We're seeing situations where someone in the school has created a nude image of said child and now they're using that against the kid as a form of bullying or circulating it around the school,' Bosch said.
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Bosch said these deepfakes are being used to victimize children and youth, and while it hasn't reached a level yet where the ICE unit has seen cases where the children and youth are being extorted, it could just be a matter of time.
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'I can say the way that it's trending in the schools that at some point for sure I wouldn't be surprised if we do see one of these investigations reach (that level),' said Bosch.
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According to cybertip.ca, roughly 4,000 sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of children and youth were generated last year.
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According to Thorn a non-profit group that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse, data shows that one in 10 youth say they know of cases where their friends and classmates have created 'deepfake nudes' of other kids using AI-generated tools.
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'With kids going on summer break and having a lot more time on their phones and devices, having these discussions now is important. It's a great opportunity to have conversations about nude images, but also AI-generated content,' said Bosch.
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'I want to be very clear about this. AI-generated nude images of a child still meet the definition of child pornography in the Criminal Code, so it's considered child abuse sexual material.'
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