With Explicit AI-Generated Content Disproportionately Victimizing Young Girls, Pressley Calls for Trauma-Informed Resources to Protect Students

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WASHINGTON – Today, in a House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) highlighted the harmful and disproportionate impact of non-consensual “deepfake” pornography on young girls and women, and its contribution to the growing crisis of childhood trauma.

In her line of questioning, Rep. Pressley questioned Ari Waldman, Professor of Law at the University of California, and Dorota Mani, a parent of an impacted Westfield High School student, on the ways in which non-consensual deepfake pornography contributes to the growing crisis of childhood trauma. Emphasizing a recent CDC report that teenage girls are experiencing record high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide ideation, Rep. Pressley also called for trauma-informed resources to protect impacted students in schools.

Footage of Rep. Pressley’s exchange with the witnesses can be found here, and a transcript is below.

Transcript: Pressley Highlights Harmful Impact of Explicit AI-Generated Content on Young Girls

House Oversight and Accountability

March 12, 2024

REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you to our witnesses for being here today, including Ms. Mani.

As a survivor of intrafamily, childhood sexual abuse myself, I must say I really do look forward to a day where families and children do not have to weaponize and relive their trauma in order to compel action from their government. But I’m grateful for those who do it time and time again.

Frederick Douglass once said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men and women.” That is why in the 116th Congress, as a freshman member and serving on the Oversight Committee, I convened the first ever hearing on childhood trauma in the history of this committee.

Children across the country and in my district, the Massachusetts 7^th, are facing layered crises, shouldering unprecedented emotional burden from challenges in their homes, classrooms, and now more than ever, online.

Our young girls. Our young girls, and we must see them as all of our children.

Our girls are targeted and victimized the most. Just last year, the CDC released a report that teenage girls are experiencing record high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide ideation. The trauma backpacks that they carry across the threshold into our schools every day only grow heavier.

I ask unanimous consent to enter this Youth Risk Behavior Survey into the record.

CHAIR MACE: Without objection.

REP. PRESSLEY: You know, as a Black woman who was once a Black young girl, I know intimately what it is for your body to be criminalized, your hair to be criminalized, for your body to be banned, objectified and as a survivor, violated.

And as this report makes plain and this hearing has confirmed, our girls are being traumatized. I worry for my 15-year-old daughter, who will think that it is normal, a conflated part of her identity as a girl or a woman in this country to experience these indignities and these violations.

Professor Waldman, in what ways does nonconsensual deep fake pornography contribute to the growing crisis of childhood trauma?

PROFESSOR WALDMAN: I need more than two and a half minutes to describe all those ways, but very briefly, nonconsensual deepfake pornography does more than just nonconsensual pornography in that not only does it objectify and make someone at risk of—someone who’s always looking over their shoulder every image, every social encounter that they engage in, which deters them from engaging with other people, which is necessary at any age of life. But also, it allows for this to happen, even if you don’t have any images out there, right?

Because these images can be created even with a simple instruction to an AI generator. Essentially what it does is it creates perpetual trauma and perpetual risk of trauma.

REP. PRESSLEY: That’s right. Thank you.

And further, a traumatized child certainly has a decreased readiness to learn. Advances in AI have made it easier for people to create sexual content that intimidates, degrades, dehumanizes, and traumatizes victims. And this technology is becoming more present in our K-12 schools.

Ms. Mani, can you describe what the psychological damage is for teenagers who are victims of this type of harassment? And once again, thank you for the courage you and your daughter continue to display in the face of these reprehensible acts.

CHAIR MACE: Turn your microphone or speak into it.

MS. MANI: So I’m not trained to really talk about the repercussions of those images. All I can tell you is that we are not the majority.

We took a stand and my daughter took back her dignity. But not many girls can be in the same position because of multiple layers and factors.

Most importantly, it’s a shame that in 2024, we are still talking about consent. Consent in regard to our body, “No” that should be taught as a sentence, and our girls are not empowered, but rather falling through the cracks because of the educational system.

Laws, do they have to be put in place? 100%. School policies? 100%. And then we all should sit down and figure out ways of how to make it better without pointing fingers as well, but rather because it’s ethical and the right thing to do.

REP. PRESSLEY: Absolutely. I think we should start with trauma-informed schools.

MS. MANI: 100%.

REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you.

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