Everything About The Deepfake Nude Photo Scandal in S’pore Sports School

In the last few years, the rise of Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has been rather rampant, especially in the workplace.

More controversial, however, has been the rise of generative AI in writing, and art.

I’m not here to debate the use of Gen AI in that.

In a shock to no one because of a lack of proper sex education and respect for women, a more disturbing trend has emerged: deepfakes nudes of people, especially women.

It’s even more disturbing if minors are involved, but here we are.

It’s happened in South Korea recently, where the nth room has revealed the rampant sharing of deepfake nudes of women, even family member.

We cannot be naive in thinking that it wouldn’t happen here in Singapore.

But well. We can be a little taken aback when minors are the ones involved.

What Happened?

The Singapore Sports School (SSP) and the police are investigating deepfake nude photos of students distributed.

According to one of the victim’s parents, the perpetrators were using WhatsApp to communicate, with two groups involved: one group generating deepfake nudes, another group circulating them.

It is unsure of how many students are involved.

SSP’s principal Ong Kim Soon, responding to media queries, has shared on 12 Nov that the school is aware of the incident “involving the creation and sharing of deepfake photos by our student-athletes”.

“The school does not condone such harmful behaviour,” he said, adding that the school has launched an investigation and lodged a police report.

“As police investigations are ongoing, we are unable to share more information.”

While the police has confirmed that a report was lodged and that investigations were ongoing, neither the school nor the police have shared details about the nature of the images.

The school has sent a WhatsApp message to parents of the students at SSP, which shares that the police have been given website links associated with the case. The school is working with the police in removing images from these sites.

The WhatsApp message also revealed that the students involved are being interviewed by the police, and their mobile phones and other devices have been confiscated for forensic investigation.

Lastly, disciplinary action for the students involved have started, which have included caning for some students, suspensions from school, training, and boarding, and bans from sports trips.

The SSP is a school that sees an enrollment of students aged 13-18 years attending.

The parent of one of the victims has shared more details about the case, sharing that the case dates back to June earlier this year when a group of male teenagers started generating and circulating deepfake nude images of their female schoolmates.

The parent had been informed on the case on Monday during a call with his daughter’s mentor, following which both parents then met with their daughter’s form teacher.

He said he was unsure how many students are involved, but added that “it’s a huge group of boys” and “not just one or two”.

Affected parents have made police reports, he added.

The father has questioned the disciplinary methods that SSP has set however, wondering if the caning received by some of the boys is enough.

The father has asked SSP to “seriously look at” expelling the students involved.