PETALING JAYA: A secondary school student in Johor was recently expelled after allegedly creating and selling lewd images of young women using artificial intelligence (AI).
Each image was priced at RM2 each on social media platforms.
Foon Yew High School admitted that the issue was not handled swiftly and verified that the comments made online regarding the school’s discipline assistant were “inaccurate and distorted”, as quoted from China Press, and stated that they have the right to act against any defamation or other forms of harassment of its teachers and students.
The school board also denied online comments stating that the student was not given two minor demerit points for his actions and confirmed the expulsion, which was said to be following school regulations.
Furthermore, the school board said it would be providing full support to the victims, offering psychiatric counselling and legal assistance when necessary, also reaffirming its commitment in cooperating with the police in their investigations.
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The board was also said to have appealed to Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching to “expedite efforts”, as quoted, to resolve the matter through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Earlier on Wednesday (April 9), Teo said in a statement that there were approximately 40 victims in the case, the majority of whom were believed to be school alumni.
“However, among them are current students as young as 14 years old.
“It is possible that some victims are still unaware that their images have been maliciously manipulated and distributed,” she said in a statement.
On April 8, a 16-year-old student was arrested after he was suspected of creating the images.
Johor police chief M Kumar said that the images were believed to have been sourced from the victims’ social media pages, confirming that the first report on the issue was lodged on April 3 by an 18-year-old woman, according to Free Malaysia Today.
The student has been remanded for four days, until April 12, to assist in police investigations.
The case is being investigated under Section 292 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
