🚨 Any sexually explicit or nude image showing or depicting a minor under the age of 18 is considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM), (formally referred to as child pornography) and is illegal.
Back-to-school photos are everywhere. A first-day-of-school picture on Instagram. A team photo. A Snapchat selfie with friends. A yearbook portrait. A picture from homecoming, practice, or the school play. None of these images are sexual.
But in the age of generative AI, they can become the raw material for sexual exploitation.
For years, one of the most common online-safety messages for young people has been straightforward: don’t create or send intimate images. That advice has hardly been sufficient for something that can be so detrimental and also illegal (intimate images of anyone under 18 is constituted CSAM), but it no longer covers the full reality students face today.
A teenager doesn’t have to take a nude. They don’t have to sext anyone. They don’t have to make a risky decision with a camera.
Someone else can take an ordinary photograph of them and use artificial intelligence to fabricate the intimate image that never existed. It’s not hard for any teen to do; there are plenty of nudify apps and AI software that will let you create an image like this with a simple request.
1.2 Million Children Reported Being Sexualized Through AI in Just One Year
In February 2026, UNICEF released findings that put the scale of the problem into perspective.
As part of the second phase of the Disrupting Harm project, led by UNICEF’s Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL, researchers surveyed approximately 11,000 children across 11 countries about AI-generated child sexual abuse.
At least 1.2 million children across those countries were estimated to have had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes during the previous year. In some countries, the prevalence reached approximately 1 in 25 children—roughly 1 in a typical classroom.UNICEF. (2026, February). Artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse and exploitation. https://www.unicef.org/reports/artificial-intelligence-and-child-sexual-abuse-and-exploitationCopy Researchers based the estimate on nationally representative household surveys of internet-using children ages 12–17. The study covered 11 countries rather than the entire world, so the 1.2 million figure is not an estimate of the number of children affected globally. But that limitation makes the finding no less significant.
This isn’t a hypothetical risk or something confined to celebrities and public figures. Children are already experiencing it at scale. And UNICEF’s warning goes beyond the statistic. The organization specifically notes that traditional prevention efforts focused on the risks of children creating or sharing sexual images themselves remain important—but are now insufficient.
AI has changed the equation.
An Ordinary Photo Can Now Become the Starting Point for Sexual Exploitation
Think about how many photographs of the average student exist. Some are on their own accounts. Others belong to friends, teammates, parents, schools, clubs, sports programs, dance studios, churches, community organizations, or relatives. Some might have been online for years.
Generative AI tools can take those ordinary images and manipulate them. So-called “nudify” or “undress” tools can create fabricated nude or sexualized images from photographs of clothed people. Other tools can insert a person’s face or likeness into increasingly convincing sexualized images or videos.
A 2026 investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue identified 181 publicly accessible websites that allowed users to upload images of real people and generate sexualized or pornographic content. Collectively, researchers estimated that these websites received more than 40 million unique visitors per month between December 2025 and March 2026. Copy
Researchers found services that were inexpensive, easy to use, and readily discoverable. They also documented users requesting manipulated images of girlfriends, ex-partners, family members, teachers, and women whose photographs appeared online. In other words, the source material doesn’t need to come from an intimate exchange. It can come from Instagram. It can come from a school newsletter. It can come from a sports team photo. It can come from a perfectly ordinary picture that the person depicted never imagined anyone would sexualize.
Consent in the AI Era Has to Include Our Digital Likeness
Healthy consent has always required respecting another person’s boundaries and autonomy. Generative AI introduces a question that previous generations rarely had to consider: What does consent mean when someone can manufacture a sexual depiction of your body without your body ever being involved?
The sexual act in a deepfake may never have happened. The nudity may be fabricated. But someone still used a real person’s identity to create sexual content without their permission. The person depicted didn’t choose to participate. They didn’t choose how their body or likeness would appear, the audience, or how the image would be saved, shared, laughed at, traded, posted, or used against them.
That’s why “it’s fake” doesn’t resolve the issue of consent.
UNICEF puts the distinction clearly: when a child’s image or identity is used in AI-generated sexual content, that child is directly victimized. UNICEF also classifies sexualized AI-generated or manipulated imagery of children as child sexual abuse material.
A healthy understanding of consent in 2026, therefore, has to reach beyond Did someone agree to take this sexual photo? Is this real?
We also need to ask: Did this person agree to have their likeness sexualized at all?
This Isn’t Just an Online Problem. It’s Already a School Problem.
Back-to-school is an especially important time to have this conversation because classmates often have unrestricted access to one another’s photographs.
Students follow one another online. They appear together in photos. They know one another’s usernames. They share screenshots and posts in group chats. School websites, sports rosters, clubs, and extracurricular programs may publish additional images. Research suggests that AI-generated sexual abuse has already entered that social environment.
In 2024, the Center for Democracy & Technology surveyed U.S. public high school students, parents, and teachers about nonconsensual intimate imagery in schools. Fifteen percent of students said they knew about AI-generated deepfake intimate imagery depicting someone associated with their school, an estimated 2.3 million U.S. public high school students.
Researchers also found that schools often responded after incidents occurred rather than proactively preparing students and staff. Only 5% of surveyed teachers said their school had provided victims of deepfake intimate imagery with resources for getting images removed from social media or other platforms. Copy
A school’s first conversation about sexual deepfakes shouldn’t happen after a student’s face is already circulating in a group chat. Prevention means teaching students what the behavior is before someone decides to try it.
Fight the New Drug School presentations and assemblies help students understand the significance of creating, sharing, and deepfake imagery, the seriousness (that it’s illegal), and what to do if you’re a victim of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI. Our engaging, multimedia presentations help students make more informed choices surrounding pornography, sexting, and AI.
Privacy Settings Can Help, But They Can’t Solve the Problem
There are practical reasons to review who can see your social media accounts, reconsider unknown followers, limit unnecessary public information, and think before posting. Families should have those conversations. But we should be careful not to make “don’t post photos” the primary solution.
First, it isn’t realistic. Photographs are woven into modern life, and people don’t control every picture taken or posted of them. More importantly, that framing can quietly transfer responsibility from the person committing the abuse to the person whose photograph was misused.
A student shouldn’t have to wonder whether posting a soccer photo, a prom picture, or a selfie somehow made them responsible for another person’s decision to create sexual content of them. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found troubling patterns of victim-blaming surrounding nonconsensual intimate imagery. Researchers note that victims—particularly women—can face blame based on their appearance or perceived sexual behavior, shifting responsibility away from those who create and distribute abusive imagery without consent. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. (2026, July 13). Mapping the ‘Nudify’ Tools Ecosystem. https://www.isdglobal.org/publication/mapping-the-nudify-tools-ecosystem/Copy
Posting a photograph is not consent for someone to sexually manipulate it.
Having a public account isn’t consent. Sending someone a selfie isn’t consent. Dating someone isn’t consent. Breaking up with someone isn’t consent.
Allowing someone to photograph you isn’t consent for them to use AI to fabricate sexual imagery afterward. Digital safety strategies can reduce some exposure, but responsibility belongs to the person choosing to violate another person’s boundaries.
Teens Are Already Changing Their Behavior Because They’re Afraid of Being Deepfaked
The fear surrounding this technology is already affecting how teenagers participate online.
In a nationally representative 2026 survey of 1,314 U.S. teens ages 13–17, Common Sense Media found that 44% had seen sexual or nude content they believed AI had generated. Among teens who had encountered AI-generated sexual content, nearly one-quarter had seen material depicting themselves or someone they personally knew.
Two-thirds of teens—67%—said they were at least somewhat worried that someone might depict them in AI-generated sexual content without their consent. Among worried teens, 30% had made social media accounts private, 23% were posting fewer images or videos of themselves, and 9% had deleted social media accounts.Copy
Those precautions may feel worthwhile to individual teens. But young people shouldn’t have to erase themselves from digital life to avoid sexual exploitation. The better goal is a culture in which students understand that another person’s photograph isn’t sexual raw material.
The Back-to-School Conversation Needs to Address the Potential Perpetrator, Too
Online-safety conversations often focus almost exclusively on avoiding victimization. Don’t send this. Don’t post that. Make your account private. Be careful whom you trust.
Those conversations can be useful. But if adults only teach children how to avoid becoming targets, we’re leaving out half the lesson. We also need to teach young people not to become perpetrators.
Common Sense Media’s 2026 survey found that 18% of teens said they had personally created AI sexual content or knew someone who had. Among that group, 63% said the content depicted themselves or someone they knew.
Some teens may understand immediately why making a fake sexual image of a classmate is abusive. Others may see an AI tool, a friend’s photograph, and a group chat and interpret the whole thing as a joke.
That’s where education matters.
A useful conversation can be remarkably simple:
- Don’t upload someone else’s photo to a sexualizing AI tool.
- Don’t ask AI to “undress” a real person.
- Don’t make sexual deepfakes of classmates, teachers, friends, exes, strangers, or anyone else.
- Don’t forward, save, request, trade, or encourage the circulation of those images.
- Don’t assume fabricated sexual content is harmless because the depicted event never happened.
- If someone sends you this material, don’t become another link in the distribution chain.
And underneath all of those rules is one principle young people can carry into whatever technology comes next: Another person’s body and identity belong to them, not to you.
What Parents Can Do Before the First Day of School
You don’t need to become an AI expert before talking with your child. You also don’t need to begin with the most frightening example you can find.
Start with something familiar: a photo. Ask your teen what kinds of pictures their friends post. Ask whether they’ve heard about people using AI to make fake nudes. Ask what students at their school think about it. Then talk about consent. You might ask: If someone posts a photo publicly, what do you think other people have permission to do with it? Does having access to an image mean you have consent to manipulate it? What would you do if a friend sent a fake nude of someone from school?
Those questions invite young people to think instead of simply waiting for a lecture to end. Families can also review privacy settings together, talk about screenshots and resharing, and make sure teens know which trusted adults they can approach if something happens. Most importantly, tell them that if they become a target, they should come to you.
Fear of losing a phone, being punished for using a particular app, or being blamed for posting a photograph can keep young people from asking for help when they need it most.
Schools Need a Plan Before an Image Starts Circulating
Parents can’t address this problem alone.
UNICEF specifically recommends that schools educate students about AI-related sexual exploitation, including deepfake nudes and “nudify” tools, while training educators to respond appropriately when incidents occur. That preparation should involve more than adding “AI deepfakes” to a disciplinary handbook.
Students need education about consent, pornography, digital citizenship, sexual harassment, healthy relationships, and image-based abuse. Staff need clear reporting pathways. Administrators need to know how they will support a targeted student, preserve relevant evidence, communicate with families, address distribution, and connect victims with appropriate resources.
And schools don’t have to build that education from scratch.
Fight the New Drug’s Live Presentations are designed to help schools start these difficult conversations with students in an engaging, age-appropriate, research-informed way. Rather than relying on shame or scare tactics, FTND presenters help young people understand how pornography and sexual exploitation can affect individuals, relationships, and society while encouraging them to think critically about consent, healthy relationships, digital choices, and the media they consume.
For schools trying to prepare students for a digital environment where pornography, sextortion, nonconsensual image sharing, and AI-generated sexual content can overlap, these conversations are increasingly important. A presentation can give students a shared vocabulary for recognizing exploitation and thinking about consent before they’re confronted with a crisis in a group chat or school hallway.
Educators, administrators, parent organizations, and student leaders can learn more about Fight the New Drug’s Live Presentations and bring a presentation to their school or community.
*If AI-generated sexual imagery of you or your child appears online, preserve relevant evidence without unnecessarily redistributing the image, report the content to the platform or service involved, involve a trusted adult or appropriate school personnel when students are involved, and seek specialized support.
Our Victim Resources page has information for people experiencing image-based sexual abuse, sextortion, child sexual abuse material, and other forms of sexual exploitation.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
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