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What's Actually Happening — Written for You, Not About You
These are fast, real reads about what's actually going on with deepfakes and sextortion among people your age — including one stat worth knowing before anything else:
1 in 5
teens surveyed believed it was legal to make a deepfake nude of another minor. It isn't. Not close.
The List
Five reads
“This Teen Was Targeted by Deepfake Nudes. She Hopes New Training Course Will Help Future Victims” — CNN Business (January 2026)
Read at CNNElliston Berry — one of DIF's own advisors — was 14 when classmates made AI deepfakes of her. This piece covers the 17-minute training course she helped build for students, teachers, and parents. Start here.(opens in a new tab)“Will I Be Believed?” — Thorn
Read at ThornOn one of the specific fears deepfakes create that other forms of abuse don't: worrying that if the images are fake, no one will believe the harm was real. If that fear sounds familiar, this one's for you.(opens in a new tab)“Teens Told Us They're Not Just Seeing AI Nudes — They're Making Them” — Common Sense Media
Read at Common Sense MediaA more candid look than most coverage manages: teens are on both sides of this, sometimes without fully clocking what they're doing as abuse. Useful for understanding the whole picture, not just the victim's side.(opens in a new tab)“Teens Are Spreading Deepfake Nudes of One Another. It's No Joke” — Scientific American
Read at Scientific AmericanA clear, well-explained look at how normalized this has become at schools — good if you want to understand the mechanics of how it spreads, not just that it does.(opens in a new tab)“Little Recourse: Teens, Girls Victimized by AI Deepfake Nudes” — NBC News
Read at NBC NewsOn the gap between how fast this is happening and how slow schools and platforms have been to respond — and what's changed since the TAKE IT DOWN Act.(opens in a new tab)
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More from the Learn Hub
Types & Terms
Every form this abuse takes, and the language to name it.
Read →Books & Reports
The researchers, journalists, and survivors whose work built this field, from the US, UK, and Canada.
Read →Case Studies
Five of the biggest recent cases, and what each one changed.
Read →Why Enforcement Is Hard
How the internet is actually built, and why a 48-hour takedown law only reaches one layer of it.
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