LOS ANGELES — The trouble began, she said, when the boy asked to follow her on TikTok. The 13-year-old girl, an 8th grader at Aliso Viejo Middle School, said the request popped up on her profile in February.

Her account was private, and she’d kept most of her previous followers to a small circle of friends and family. But she was familiar with the boy from being in several classes together. She hit accept.

A few weeks later, the girl said, she learned that not only had the boy taken a screenshot of her from her account, but he had also used artificial intelligence software to place put her face on a photo of a nude body that wasn’t hers. And now, a small group of boys was sharing manipulated photos of her among themselves.

Her stepmother reported the photos to the Capistrano Unified School District. Administrators pulled out one of the boys who shared the photos from the girl’s classes, but he continued to harass her outside of class, she said. The boy who created the AI-generated images remained in her class.

“I feel uncomfortable,” the girl said. “I don’t want him near me.”

The family said they later found out the boy had created fake nude photos of at least two other girls and shared them.

Ryan Burris, a spokesman for Capistrano Unified, said the school district is investigating what happened. The district has refused to say how many students are being investigated. They would not say how many were targeted with phony nude photos. And they would not say whether the students involved would be disciplined.

“In general, disciplinary actions may include suspension and potentially expulsion depending on the circumstances of the case,” Burris said in an email.

The Southern California News Group is not identifying the girl or her stepmother.

‘Behind the curve’

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