Laws Against Deepfakes

As of 2026, most US states have laws against malicious deepfakes — especially deepfake porn and political deepfakes.

NY, CA, TX, FL, and many others now criminalize creating or sharing non-consensual intimate deepfakes — including of people under 18.

Three things to know

• Sharing counts as creating in most states
• Penalties include felony charges and jail time
• Victims can sue for damages even if no charges are filed

The big idea: Making or sharing deepfakes of real people can be a serious crime.

Deepfakes of teens are a real problem now — here's what to spot, what to do, and why staying loud matters.

What to actually do

• Save the URL and a timestamped screenshot before reporting
• Tell a trusted adult — counselor, parent, coach
• Report to the platform AND to the school

The big idea: Deepfakes hurt real people. The grown-up move is to document, report, and refuse to forward.

If a fake AI image or video of a friend lands in a group chat, the first hour matters more than the next month. AI tools made this easy, but a calm playbook can shut it down fast.

How to use it

• Screenshot the post and the URL before it gets deleted
• DM your friend privately first — don't blast it in the group
• Report on the platform AND save report receipts as PDFs
• Ask AI to draft a calm cease-and-desist DM to the poster

Try it

Write a 5-step deepfake-response checklist with AI and save it in your notes app so you can pull it up in 10 seconds.

DeepNude apps, Telegram bots, and one-click 'undress' sites all break the same federal law signed in 2025. Knowing the line keeps you out of court and out of someone's nightmare.

Some examples

• A 13-year-old in NJ was charged after a Snapchat-circulated AI image
• Schools must report under Title IX within 24 hours of a complaint
• Section 230 doesn't protect the kid who generated the image
• Even 'just sharing' the file is a separate count

Try it!

Open your phone's app store right now. Search 'undress' and 'face swap.' Screenshot the apps that violate the rule and uninstall any you have.

If a deepfake of a classmate shows up in a group chat, the right move is not to reply, screenshot, or share. Save the evidence with timestamps, report it to the platform's image-abuse form, and tell a trusted adult — most U.S. states now treat AI-generated nudes of minors as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), full stop.

Some examples

• A TikTok edit using an AI face-swap of a classmate gets reported via TikTok's 'intimate image' form, not the generic spam button — those reviewers are trained for this.
• A friend gets sent a fake AI voice clip 'from' their parent asking for Venmo — they call the parent on a different number to verify before doing anything.
• Someone in your Discord posts an AI-undressed photo — you screenshot the message ID and timestamp, then use Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) to get hashes pushed to the major platforms.
• A nudify-app link gets shared in a Snap story — you don't click (the site logs your IP), you report the story and block the sender.

Try it!

Bookmark Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) and StopNCII.org on your phone right now. If you're ever the target — or you see a friend become one — those two sites get hashes of the image pushed to Meta, TikTok, Snap, X, and Reddit so it can't reupload.

AI image and video tools can paste anyone's face onto anything in seconds. Doing that to a real person without consent isn't a prank — most US states now treat it as a crime, and schools expel for it. The harm to the target is permanent even if the image gets deleted.

Some examples

• A 14-year-old in NJ used a free site to fake nudes of classmates — police charged him.
• Victims report panic attacks and dropping out months after the image circulated.
• Even AI-detection tools can flag your account once people report.
• Sharing the image, even to one friend, counts the same as making it in most laws.

Try it!

Open your phone's Notes app and write down the names of three apps your friends use that can swap faces. Next to each, write 'consent required' in big letters. Show a parent or trusted adult.

Generative AI can now produce videos and audio that look and sound like real people saying things they never said. As a teen who scrolls daily, you're a prime target for deepfake misinformation — and one shared fake can wreck a reputation, including your own. Learning to slow down, check provenance, and verify before you repost is now a basic literacy skill.

Some examples

• Watch for unnatural blinking, weird ear shapes, or hands that morph between frames in suspicious clips.
• Reverse image search a viral screenshot before believing the caption.
• Check whether the original account exists and has a real posting history.
• Look for Content Credentials (C2PA) badges on news photos in supported viewers.

Try it!

Pick a viral clip from your feed today. Search the quote in quotes, find the original context, and decide if what you saw was real, edited, or AI-generated. Tell one friend what you found.