Discover how deepfake nudes, created by AI-based nudify apps, pose serious risks in schools. Learn safety tips to protect and support affected individuals.
Published Wednesday, June 17, 2026
TL;DR
A type of AI tool called a nudify app can generate a fake nude image from any regular photo in under a minute. The source material does not have to be explicit. It can be a school photo, an Instagram selfie, or a picture from a sports team page.
These fake images, called deepfake nudes, are being created and shared by students in schools across the country.
The victim did nothing wrong. There is now a federal law against sharing them. Here is what every parent needs to understand about how this works, why it is spreading, and what you can actually do.
This is already happening in your kid's school
A Wall Street Journal investigation confirmed what many parents are only beginning to hear about. AI nudify tools are evolving and multiplying, laws are lagging behind, schools do not know how to handle it, and parents are left trying to help their children scrub images from the internet with no roadmap for how to do it.
The WSJ piece is paywalled. This article is not. And unlike a news story, this one tells you exactly what to do.
According to a 2025 study by Thorn, a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse, 1 in 8 teenagers personally knows someone who has been targeted by deepfake nude imagery. One in 17 has had deepfake nudes created of them by someone else. Nearly a third of teens, 31 percent, are already familiar with the term deepfake nudes. Their parents, by and large, are not.
The school-level data is just as striking. A RAND Corporation survey of a nationally representative sample of K-12 principals found that 22 percent of high school principals and 20 percent of middle school principals reported incidents of deepfake bullying during the 2023 to 2025 school years. One in five schools has already had to deal with this. The true number is almost certainly higher, since many victims never report out of shame or fear of being victimized further.
Most parents have never heard of nudify apps. Their kids almost certainly have.
Over the past two years, schools across the country have dealt with a wave of incidents involving AI-generated deepfake nudes. A student takes a regular, fully clothed photo of a classmate from her public social media. They runs it through a nudify app and generates a fake explicit image in under a minute. That image then spreads through group chats, Snapchat, and Discord, sometimes reaching hundreds of students before anyone thinks to report it.
In Hingham, Massachusetts, a mother named Megan Mancini, one of the families profiled by the Wall Street Journal, discovered that a boy had created a deepfake image of her middle school daughter and shared it on Snapchat with other kids. In a New Jersey middle school, a 14-year-old girl found out while sitting in history class that explicit images of female classmates were circulating.
Her image was among them. She had not done anything wrong. She had posted photos on Instagram, like millions of other teenagers.
These are not isolated edge cases. They are part of a national pattern playing out in middle schools and high schools in nearly every state. And the majority of parents, when asked, have no idea what a nudify app even is.
What is a deepfake nude?
A deepfake nude is a fake explicit image created using artificial intelligence. The AI is trained on large numbers of real images and learns to generate realistic-looking alterations to photos. It can digitally remove clothing from a picture of a fully clothed person and produce a fake image that looks convincingly real.
The word deepfake originally referred to AI-generated video that placed one person's face onto another person's body. The technology has since expanded into still images and become dramatically more accessible. Today, creating a deepfake nude does not require technical knowledge, specialized software, or any access to the actual person. It requires only a photo and a few dollars.
The result looks real. That is exactly what makes it so damaging.
The person in the image did not consent. They did not pose for anything. They did not send anything to anyone. Their photo was taken from a public social media account, a school website, or a sports team page, and used without their knowledge to produce something they never agreed to and never would have.
What is a nudify app and how does it work?
A nudify app is a tool, usually available as a website or mobile app, that automates the deepfake nude process. The user uploads a photo. The app uses AI to generate a fake explicit version within seconds. No skill required. No special equipment. Just a photo and a payment.
These tools are not hidden on the dark web. In April 2026, the Tech Transparency Project published an investigation that found that searches for terms like "nudify," "undress," and "deepnude" in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store surfaced dozens of apps capable of digitally removing clothing from images of real people.
Nearly 40 percent of the top results across both platforms could render women nude or scantily clad. The apps identified had been downloaded 483 million times and generated over $122 million in lifetime revenue. Thirty-one of them were rated suitable for minors.
The cost is low. Some nudify apps are free for a single image. Others charge a few dollars for additional credits. Some use disguised billing descriptions that appear on credit card statements as unrelated purchases, making it harder for parents to spot. The barrier to using one is essentially zero.
After the Tech Transparency Project published its findings, Apple removed 15 apps and Google removed seven. But enforcement has been inconsistent, and new apps continue to appear. As of today, nudify apps remain accessible to any teenager with a smartphone.
Apple and Google both claim to ban nudify apps. Those platforms that once populated the app store now exist primarily as web apps.
Apple and Google both claim to ban nudify apps. Those platforms that once populated the app store now exist primarily as web apps.
How it spreads inside a school
The pattern in documented school incidents follows the same sequence almost every time.
A student, almost always a boy targeting a girl, locates photos of a classmate from her public social media accounts. He runs them through a nudify app and generates fake explicit images. He shares them with a small group. Within hours, the images are circulating through group chats across the school.
The victim often finds out through a rumor. Sometimes a friend tells her. Sometimes she overhears something in class. Sometimes she is the last person in the building to know.
She feels shame, even though she did nothing wrong. She does not want to go to school. She is afraid of who has seen it and what they think. She wonders who still has the image saved on their phone.
The psychological impact is well-documented and serious. Thorn's research found that 84 percent of teens believe deepfake nudes are harmful, citing emotional distress, reputational damage, and a sense of deception as the top reasons. Victims report fear, shame, anxiety, depression, and lasting difficulty trusting people. Many experience a sustained sense of having lost control over their own image and their own body, even though no real image of them exists.
And because images can be screenshotted, downloaded, and reshared indefinitely, there is no way to ever confirm that every copy is gone. Victims often describe this as one of the worst parts: not the moment they found out, but the permanent uncertainty afterward.
Your daughter's photos are already the source material
This is the part of the conversation most parents are not having, and it is the most important one.
Parents talk to their kids about not sending explicit images. That advice still matters. But it does not address this threat at all, because nudify apps do not need explicit photos to work. They work on any photo. A school picture. A birthday party photo. A soccer team picture. A selfie in a hoodie.
If your daughter has a public Instagram account, a presence on TikTok, photos on a school athletics page, or any public-facing image online, she already has a photo library that can be misused this way. She does not have to do anything wrong. She does not have to send anything to anyone. She just has to exist online.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Anika Dugal, a Duke University undergraduate who advocates against nonconsensual deepfakes, saying she has become afraid to post photos to social media at all because she knows how easily they can be misused. She described it as a direct conflict with building a career, where putting yourself out there online is increasingly expected.
That is the real cost of inaction at the platform level: young women self-censoring their public presence because the alternative feels too dangerous. That should not be treated as an acceptable outcome.
The practical reality right now is that public photos carry more risk than they did two years ago. That is not a reason to delete everything and go offline. Normal teen life involves posting photos, and that should not have to end because of what some teenagers are doing with AI. But it is a reason to understand what "public" actually means today, to revisit privacy settings, and to know that this threat is real before it becomes personal.
What the law now says
For years, victims had to navigate a patchwork of inconsistent state laws, and many states had nothing at all.
That changed on May 19, 2025, when President Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law. It passed the House 409 to 2. It is the first federal law specifically targeting non-consensual deepfake images, and it has teeth.
The law does two significant things. First, it makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, of both minors and adults. Sharing deepfake nudes of a minor can now result in up to three years of federal imprisonment.
Second, it requires online platforms to establish a notice-and-removal process. Once a valid removal request is filed, the platform has 48 hours to take the image down. The FTC has enforcement authority.
The platform takedown requirement took effect in May 2026, meaning platforms are now legally required to have these systems in place.
There are real limitations worth understanding. The law covers publishing and sharing. Creation alone is murkier. Enforcement depends on victims and parents knowing how to file a valid request correctly. And images can continue to spread in the time it takes to get them removed.
Separately, 32 states had already passed their own laws on deepfakes or non-consensual intimate imagery before the federal law passed. The strength of those laws varies. Some criminalize creation. Others only cover distribution. Knowing what your state's law covers matters.
How to actually get images removed: a step-by-step guide
This is the section that does not exist anywhere else in parent-facing coverage of this topic. Here is exactly what to do.
If your child is targeted, documentation is everything. Screenshot all evidence before reporting, blocking, or deleting anything.
If your child is targeted, documentation is everything. Screenshot all evidence before reporting, blocking, or deleting anything.
Step 1: Do not delete anything yet.
Before you report, block, or remove anything, screenshot everything. Capture usernames, profile pictures, message threads, timestamps, and any other identifying information. This documentation is essential if law enforcement gets involved. Deleting first is the most common mistake families make.
Step 2: Submit a request through NCMEC's Take It Down program.
Go to NCMEC's Take It Down program. This is a free service run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children specifically designed to help remove explicit images of minors from the internet. You do not submit the image itself. You submit a hash, a unique digital fingerprint of the image, that platforms can use to detect and remove it across their systems. The process is confidential. This is your first and most important step.
Step 3: Report directly to every platform where the image appeared.
Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, platforms are now legally required to respond to valid removal requests within 48 hours. Go to the reporting tool for each platform where the image was shared. Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, and TikTok all have specific reporting flows for non-consensual intimate imagery. Use the most specific category available. Keep screenshots of each report you file and note the date and time.
Step 4: Contact the school in writing.
Email the principal directly. Put the incident in writing, include what you know about who was involved, and request a written response describing what steps the school will take. Many schools still lack clear policies on AI-generated images, but a written record matters if the situation escalates. Do not accept a verbal response as sufficient.
Step 5: File a report with local law enforcement.
Call your local police department and ask to file a report. You do not need certainty about who did it to file. You do not need the image in hand. You need to start an official record. In many states, creating or sharing deepfake nudes of a minor is now a crime. In all states, the TAKE IT DOWN Act gives federal jurisdiction. Bring your documentation from Steps 1 through 4.
Step 6: Contact the FTC if platforms do not comply.
If a platform fails to remove the image within 48 hours of a valid request, that is now a federal violation. Report non-compliant platforms to the FTC. Note the date you submitted the original request, the platform, and the date by which they were required to act.
Step 7: Follow up on your child's mental health.
The practical steps matter. So does your kid. Make sure they know they are not at fault, not in trouble, and not alone in this. A school counselor or therapist familiar with digital abuse can help. The psychological impact of this kind of violation is real and can last well beyond the moment the images are removed.
What the app stores are not doing
Both Apple and Google have policies that are supposed to ban nudify apps. Both say they remove apps that violate those policies when they are made aware of them.
The problem is that awareness has repeatedly required outside investigators to do the work that platform review should be catching automatically. According to the Tech Transparency Project's April 2026 investigation, Apple and Google were not just failing to remove these apps, they were actively promoting them through sponsored search results and autocomplete suggestions that directed users toward additional nudify-related queries. Some of the apps identified were rated suitable for all ages, including children.
This is not a passive oversight. The apps generated over $122 million in revenue across both platforms. These are profitable products. Getting them removed requires persistent external pressure, not good-faith internal review.
Following the investigation, 31 senators signed a letter to Apple and Google demanding action. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation placed the Apple App Store on its 2026 Dirty Dozen List of mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation. The FTC has been urged to prioritize enforcement of the TAKE IT DOWN Act against these platforms. Progress is happening, but it is slow, and in the meantime, any teenager with a few dollars can access a working nudify app today.
What to do if your kid is the one involved
Every article covering this topic is written for parents of victims. This section is for the parents who need a different conversation.
If you find out your kid created or shared a deepfake nude image of a classmate, your first instinct may be to minimize it. It was fake. They did not touch anyone. They are a good kid.
All of that may be true, but it does not change what happened.
The person in that image did not consent to being depicted that way. Their image was used to produce something designed to humiliate them. Whether the image was AI-generated or not, the psychological harm to the victim is the same. Thorn's research documents the same fear, shame, and lasting distress in victims of deepfake abuse as in victims of non-AI image abuse.
Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, sharing a deepfake nude of a minor is now a federal crime punishable by up to three years in prison. Your kid may not have known that, but they do now. What you do next matters significantly for both them and the person they harmed.
Have a direct conversation. Not about the legal consequences first, but about the person on the other side of what they did. Ask them whether they would want someone to do this to their sister, mother, friend. Ask them why they thought it was acceptable. Do not accept "it was just a joke" or "everyone was doing it" as an answer.
Contact a lawyer before contacting the school or law enforcement, so you understand your child's exposure and options. Then contact the school. In most documented cases, the students who created these images faced minimal consequences. That is changing as laws catch up. Do not assume this will disappear quietly.
And consider whether your child needs help understanding why this felt like something they were allowed to do. That is a deeper conversation, but it is the one that actually prevents it from happening again.
The conversation to have with your teenager
Beyond what parents can do, teenagers need a framework for understanding this, not just a warning that something bad exists.
A few things worth covering directly:
Being targeted with a deepfake nude is not their fault. Not for posting photos. Not for having a public account. Not for anything. The person who created or shared the image is the only one responsible.
If they find out this has happened to a classmate, telling an adult is not snitching. It is the only reliable way the situation gets addressed. Staying silent protects the person who did it, not the person it was done to.
If someone sends them a deepfake nude of another person, saving or forwarding it makes them part of the harm. The image being fake does not make the harm fake.
Thorn's research found that 1 in 5 teenagers still believes it is legal to create deepfake nudes of someone else. That misconception is dangerous. AI tools are not neutral. They can be used to genuinely hurt people, and the fact that something is technically easy to do does not make it acceptable or consequence-free.
One more layer of protection
Most parental monitoring tools work at the app level. They can block certain websites or flag specific apps. But nudify apps are constantly evolving, new ones appear regularly, and the images created outside the phone can arrive on your child's device through any messaging platform, on any app, at any time.
Aqua One works at the operating system level. If a deepfake image is sent to your child in a group chat or direct message, you will know. You know before they have had to carry it alone, and before they have had the chance to forward it without thinking.
That visibility does not replace the conversation. But it means you are not finding out months later.
Q&A
What exactly are deepfake nudes, and how do “nudify” apps create them so quickly?
Deepfake nudes are AI-generated, fake explicit images made from ordinary photos. Nudify apps, often simple websites or mobile apps, let a user upload a regular, fully clothed photo and, for free or a few dollars, automatically generate a convincing nude version in seconds.
No technical skill or access to the person is required. The realism is what makes them so harmful: the person depicted did not consent, never posed, and often had their image taken from public social media, school, or team pages.
How common is this problem in schools and among teens?
It is already widespread. Thorn’s 2025 study found 1 in 8 teens knows someone targeted by deepfake nudes, 1 in 17 has had deepfakes made of them, and 31% are familiar with the term, far more than their parents.
A RAND survey reported deepfake bullying incidents in 22% of high schools and 20% of middle schools from 2023–2025. The real rates are likely higher due to underreporting driven by shame and fear.
If my child is targeted, what should I do first, and why is documentation so important?
Act quickly and methodically:
- Do not delete anything; screenshot usernames, threads, timestamps, and where images appeared.
- Submit a removal request through NCMEC’s Take It Down program, which uses image hashes to help platforms find and remove content.
- Report on every platform where it appeared; under federal law they have 48 hours to act on valid requests. Keep proof of each report.
- Notify the school in writing and request a written response.
- File a police report to create an official record; federal jurisdiction applies.
- If a platform doesn’t remove within 48 hours, report it to the FTC.
- Prioritize your child’s mental health; reassure them they’re not at fault and consider counseling. Documentation preserves evidence for schools, platforms, and law enforcement and is crucial if the situation escalates.
What does the new federal TAKE IT DOWN Act change, and what are its limits?
Signed on May 19, 2025, it’s the first federal law directly targeting non-consensual intimate images, including AI deepfakes. It:
- Makes knowingly publishing such images (of minors and adults) a federal crime; sharing a deepfake nude of a minor can mean up to three years in prison.
- Requires platforms to provide notice-and-removal processes and remove reported content within 48 hours; the FTC can enforce this (platform takedowns took effect May 2026). Limits: Creation alone is murkier than sharing; effective enforcement depends on victims filing correct requests; images can spread before removal. State laws (in 32 states) vary and may add protections, especially around creation.
What should I do if my child created or shared a deepfake nude?
Treat it seriously. The harm is real even if the image is fake.
Have a direct conversation focused on empathy and accountability: why it’s a violation, not a joke. Understand that sharing a deepfake nude of a minor is now a federal crime. Consult a lawyer before contacting the school or police so you understand exposure and options, then inform the school. Don’t assume it will blow over; consequences are increasing as laws and policies catch up.
Consider whether they need support to address the attitudes and peer dynamics that made this seem acceptable, to prevent it from happening again.
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Jordan Arnold
Kansas-born, digital native on a mission to help parents decode the online world their kids actually live in. When I’m not swimming laps or obsessing over the perfect Eastern European train route, I’m dodging judgmental stares from my bald, bossy cat, who’s absolutely convinced he should be in charge (and he might not be wrong).
Type 2 Helper / INTJ Architect
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