On October 20, 2023, a then-14-year-old New Jersey high school sophomore learned that one of her own classmates had used an online service to create an artificially-generated image with her face on a nude woman’s body. And she wasn’t the only one: officials at Westfield High School informed Francesa Mani and multiple other female students that boys in their class had created and spread deepfake pornographic images of them via auto-deleting messages on Snapchat.
In the weeks that followed, Mani’s account was widely chronicled. Since then, she and her mother began lobbying for regulation of such non-consensual deepfake images at both the state and federal levels. Francesa, and her mother Dorota Mani, were even invited to attend President Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union address as guests of Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ).
But Dorota Mani told Forbes that nearly five months after the incident, the boys at Westfield High School who are suspected of distributing the images have faced no meaningful consequences, beyond one of them being suspended for a single day. Mani added that to date, none of the accused boys have had any direct contact with her or Francesca.
However, according to Mani, on October 20, a school counselor told Francesa that four boys had admitted to seeing a deepfake image of her. Similarly, according to a related lawsuit filed by “Jane Doe,” a Westfield classmate, against “John Smith,” one of the suspected boys, a school assistant principal told Doe’s mother that “one of the students called into the school office about the situation confirmed to school officials that they saw a photo of Jane Doe nude.” (Smith’s attorney, Christopher Adams, did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.)
According to Mani, the suspects all continue to attend the school, approximately 30 miles west of New York City, and currently share classes with Francesca.
“They should not be walking those hallways with the girls,” Mani said.
In an emailed statement to Forbes, Mary Ann McGann, a spokesperson for Westfield Public Schools, said: “We aren’t able to provide specific details on the number of students involved and any disciplinary actions imposed, as matters involving students are confidential.” She added that “the high school conducted an immediate investigation, based on the district’s Student Code of Conduct.”
Mani outlined her frustration with the leadership at her daughter’s school in approximately three pages of written testimony published Monday. She spoke Tuesday afternoon before a Congressional subcommittee about the scourge of deepfake pornography, seeking “immediate legislative action.”
“The moment when [Francesca] was informed that she was one of the AI victims, she did feel helpless and powerless,” Mani told the committee on Tuesday. “And then she noticed a group of boys that were making fun of a group of girls. At that second, she turned from sad to mad.”
Earlier this month, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a new bill that would make the creation and distribution of such images a federal crime for the first time.
Mani also said in her written statement that Westfield High School’s administration “mishandled” her daughter’s incident.
In an interview with Forbes, Mani further explained that she understood from the Westfield Police Department that the school had apparently interviewed the suspects in the presence of officers, but critically, without their parents. That meant the boys’ statements would be unusable in court. (Under a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling from 2000, any utterances made to police while someone under 14 is in custody are “inadmissible as a matter of law, unless the parent or legal guardian is truly unavailable.”)
“[The school] fucked up,” Mani said.
By the end of January 2024, local police formally declined to bring criminal charges, and no meaningful school-based disciplinary action was taken by the school or the district. The Westfield Police Department did not respond to Forbes’ requests for comment.
“If behavior like this requires no response on the part of the [school] administration, shame on you,” Mani told Forbes.
“Not only are you teaching the boys that what they’re doing is ok, you are sending a very clear message to the female population of the school that you are a girl and at some point you’re going to be a victim. In 2024, that’s not acceptable.”
McGann, the district spokesperson, also provided a copy of an email sent out from Principal Mary Asfendis that was sent out to school families on October 20, in which she called the incident “very serious,” and urged parents to “talk with your children about their use of technology and what they are posting, saving and sharing on social media.”
Following a similar incident that took place recently at a middle school in Beverly Hills, California, five students were expelled just weeks after circulating deepfake and pornographic images of their classmates. In December, two Florida middle school students were arrested after being accused of creating comparable images. According to Wired, the students were charged with third-degree felonies under a state law that makes it a crime to share any “altered sexual depiction” of someone without their consent.
These are a few of the known deepfake incidents perpetrated against female students that have cropped up in recent months across the country as the technology has gotten more sophisticated and easier to use. Numerous apps and online services with names like “Nudify,” and “ClothOff” can, within seconds, create an endless font of nude images based on any uploaded image.
In the written testimony, Mani also described numerous steps that the school took on October 20 and beyond, which she said have made things worse for the teen girls.
According to Mani’s testimony, on October 20, her daughter, now 15, and others found out that the images were circulating, and quickly informed a vice principal that their likenesses had been used to create pornographic images. However, none of the girls, nor any school employees, actually saw the images.
Almost immediately, Mani said, the school “inappropriately announced” the names of the girls over the campus intercom system while the accused boys were “discreetly removed” from class. The school administration, she continued, “claimed the AI photographs were deleted without having seen them, offering no proof of their deletion.”
Additionally, while Francesa was speaking with administrators about how to process the situation, she asked to speak to a female school counselor – a request she claims was denied.
Mani said that when she tried to seek formal answers from the school administration, her communication was “consistently ignored.” The school was supposed to issue a “Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying,” or HIB report, 10 days after the incident was reported, but no such report has been released to Mani or anyone else.
“I’m still waiting for the investigation to conclude,” Mani told Forbes. “As of right now my last communication from the principal was that she needs more time. My question is: how much more time?”
In the meantime, Mani said, she has hired outside lawyers to propose revisions to the district’s cyber harassment policies, which she said are outdated as they lack any reference to the threat of deepfake imagery.
“We are not crying, we are pissed, we are upset.” she said. “We are fighting and we are not going to stop until we see our school have AI policies in place.”
