Images that depict the faces of girls with nude bodies have led to the departure of leaders from a private school in Pennsylvania, prompted a student protest and triggered a criminal investigation.
A juvenile suspect was “removed from" Lancaster Country Day School and his cellphone was seized by investigators in August, Susquehanna Regional Police Department Detective Laurel Bair said Tuesday.
It's the latest example of how the use of artificial intelligence to create or manipulate images with sexual content has become a concern, including within school settings.
U.S. law enforcement has been cracking down on graphic depictions of computer-generated children as well as manipulated photos of real ones. The Justice Department says it’s pursuing those who exploit AI tools and states are racing to enact laws to address the problem.
A new Pennsylvania state law that takes effect late next month explicitly criminalizes making or disseminating AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
And police in South Korea are on a seven-month push to combat explicit deepfake content, with tougher penalties, expanded use of undercover officers and increased regulation of social media. Concerns in South Korea deepened after unconfirmed lists of schools with victims spread earlier this year.
As part of the police investigation into what the Lancaster Country Day School describes as “disturbing AI generated photographs," a search warrant was used this summer to obtain an iPhone 11 linked to a 15-year-old, according to court records. The records do not identify the teen.
A woman told police that her daughter said a fellow student had been "taking photographs of students and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to portray the female juvenile students as being nude," according to a probable cause affidavit used to apply for the search warrant.
Matt Micciche, then the head of the school, told police the school had received a complaint about the photos in November 2023 through the Safe2Say Something program but the suspect, identified by his initials, denied the allegations, according to Bair's affidavit.
When some parents became aware of the photos in May, Bair wrote, they also learned that the “AI nude photographs” had been posted in a chat room.
Bair, leading the investigation because the suspect lives in the Susquehanna Regional Police Department's territory, said there has been shock at the school “that this is even occurring and that it happened within their small community.” She declined to say how many girls had been shown in the images but added that more information about the case will likely be made public in the coming two weeks.
Erik Yabor, a spokesperson for Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams, said Tuesday that Lancaster County prosecutors had no comment about the ongoing investigation.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Michelle Henry's office said the agency was not able to talk about specific tips or reports made to the Safe2Say Something platform, which fields anonymous reports from students and others about safety threats.
“Generally speaking, our team intakes the tips and sends them to the respective law enforcement or school personnel for review,” Brett Hambright said. “We have confirmed that was done regarding the matter you inquired about.”
LNP in Lancaster reported that most of Lancaster Country Day's high-school age students held a walkout on Friday, Nov. 8, marching around the campus and chanting, “Hear us. Acknowledge us. See us." School was canceled on Monday.
LNP said the school indicated on Friday that it had “parted ways” with Micciche and that board president Angela Ang-Alhadeff had stepped down. The Associated Press left phone messages seeking comment with both of them on Tuesday. A letter addressed to the school community Monday by the Lancaster Country Day Board of Trustees said it was working to replace them and was “still in the process of finalizing the resolution to the case.”
“What we can say is that over the course of the past week the board was made aware of information that led us to the decision to resolve the matter,” the board wrote, including acting “in the best interests of the girls who have been impacted and in the best interest of the school long term.”
The school said counseling has been offered to students and the institution is reviewing reporting procedures, safety practices and other policies regarding student safety.
Lancaster Country Day School is seen in this undated photo in Lancaster, Penn. (Blaine Shahan/LancasterOnline via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) — A United States envoy said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp” after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday.
However, there was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsened an already severe food crisis.
Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s pointman on Israel and Lebanon, arrived as Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government said the militant group had responded positively to the proposal, which would entail both its fighters and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
The buffer zone would be policed by thousands of additional U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism, potentially including the ability to conduct military operations against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.
An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Lebanese army base in the southern town of Sarafand, killing three soldiers, the army said – the second deadly strike on Lebanese soldiers in as many days. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. At least 41 soldiers have been killed by Israeli bombardment the past month, according to the Lebanese army.
Hochstein said he held “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
“Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps,” the envoy told reporters after the two-hour meeting. “It’s ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. ... It is now within our grasp.”
Berri said the "situation is good in principle,” although some technical details remain unresolved. The Lebanese side was waiting to hear the results of Hochstein's talks with Israeli officials, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
The United Nations humanitarian office says virtually no food or humanitarian aid has been delivered to northernmost Gaza for more than 40 days because of the Israeli military's siege.
Experts say famine may already have set in in the north, where Israel has been waging a weekslong offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes.
So far in November, OCHA reports that 27 out of 31 planned humanitarian missions were rejected by Israel and the other four were severely impeded, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday. Devastated towns like Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and parts of Jabaliya remain cut off, he said.
Asked whether the U.N. believes Israel is trying to force the estimated 75,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south by denying the aid deliveries, Dujarric replied: “I can’t speak to the intentions of the Israeli government and the Israeli policy. We’re just seeing the result of it and trying to deal with it.”
Israel says it puts no restrictions on the quantity of aid entering Gaza and that it is working to increase the amount. This month, it opened a new crossing into central Gaza. So far it has reported a few dozen trucks entering through it.
The flow of aid is at nearly the lowest level of the entire 13-month war. So far this month, Israel says it let into Gaza an average of 88 trucks a day – less than half the highest rate of the war, in April, which aid groups say was still too low.
From the aid that does enter, only about half actually reaches Palestinians because Israeli military restrictions and fears of theft often prevent the agency from collecting truck cargos at the border, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency with the biggest role in the humanitarian operation.
The theft in Gaza over the weekend of nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and other humanitarian aid sent prices soaring and caused shortages in central Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 million people have fled and where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.
On Monday, a crowd of people waited outside a shuttered bakery in the central city of Deir al-Balah. A woman who had been displaced from Gaza City, identifying herself as Umm Shadi, said the price of flour had climbed to 400 shekels (over $100) a bag, if it can even be found.
Nora Muhanna, also displaced from Gaza City, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five hours for a bag of bread for her children. “From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money,” she said.
The U.N. said armed men stole food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest single incident of its kind since the war began. It did not say who was behind the theft.
Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said the convoy of 109 trucks was instructed by the Israeli military to take an “alternative, unfamiliar route” after the aid was brought through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the trucks were robbed near the crossing itself.
Israel accuses criminal gangs and Hamas of stealing aid, allegations denied by the militant group.
Al-Aqsa TV, operated by the militants, said Hamas-run security forces in Gaza had launched an operation against looters, killing 20 of them.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based abroad, said the looters were young Bedouins who operate east of Rafah near Israeli military positions.
The Hamas-run government had a police force that maintained public security before the war, but they have vanished in many areas after being targeted by Israeli strikes. Hamas says it has taken measures to prevent looting and price-gouging in markets.
But the biggest problem is not theft – it’s the low amount of aid Israel allows into Gaza, said Tamara Alrifai, communications director for UNRWA.
“Take aid into a war zone a few trucks at a time, what do we expect a displaced, hungry and traumatized population to do?” she said.
Hamas ignited the war in Gaza when its fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of them believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their toll. The war has left much of the territory in ruins and forced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million to flee, often multiple times.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after the Hamas attack in what it said was solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes, and all-out war erupted in September.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded almost 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It also displaced nearly 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles, and tens of thousands of Israelis have been evacuated from homes near the border.
Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Khaled from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Amos Hochstein, center, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, is received ahead of a meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Amos Hochstein, center, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, is received ahead of a meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, speaks with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri during their meeting, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Amos Hochstein, center, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, arrives for his meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Amos Hochstein, right, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, and US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa A. Johnson, left, gesture during their meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Amos Hochstein, center, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, and US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa A. Johnson, left, meet with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinians queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A man looks from a damaged building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Ramat Gan, central Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Amos Hochstein, center, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, is received ahead of a meeting with Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man looks from a damaged building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Ramat Gan, central Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man clears broken glass from his damaged shop near a building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike is seen in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike is seen in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People inspect a destroyed building that was hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike is seen in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike is seen in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Women react as they pass through debris of a building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People stand next to a destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People inspect a destroyed building hit on Monday evening by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Palestinians gather near a closed bakery, amid a shortage in flour and the closure of a main bakery in central Gaza have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian woman queues for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians gather near a closed bakery amid a shortage in flour and the closure of a main bakery in central Gaza have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians queue for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian child queues for food in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
