Albany County schools move to ban harmful AI deepfakes

Fake nude images and doctored videos can spread through a school faster than a rumor, and Albany County School District No. 1 is trying to stop that before it starts. The district’s proposed policy, which passed its first reading unanimously on June 11 in Laramie, would ban students from creating or sharing AI-generated deepfakes involving private people such as classmates or teachers, and would prohibit any deepfake depicting sexual activity.

Superintendent John Goldhardt said the district needs to draw a firm line as the technology gets easier to use and harder to detect. Chief human resources officer Nathan Cowper said the policy is aimed at deepfakes that target private individuals and at sexual content, a category that has raised alarm because fake images and video can be used to spread misinformation, humiliate students and damage educators’ reputations. The proposal still needs two more readings before it can take effect.

Albany County leaders said they were not aware of many other Wyoming districts moving on similar rules, which puts Albany County among the early adopters in the state. That matters because the district is acting as state law is shifting too. Wyoming’s HB 102, titled Protecting kids from deepfakes and exploitative images, was signed by the governor on March 7 and is set to take effect July 1. The law creates criminal offenses tied to synthetic sexual material, AI-generated child sexual abuse material and AI used to promote self-harm, and it says AI use is not a defense to a criminal offense.

The local push also reflects a broader rise in school deepfake problems. In an October 2024 RAND survey, 13% of K-12 principals said their schools had dealt with bullying involving AI-generated deepfakes during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. The problem was more common in middle and high schools, where 20% of middle school principals and 22% of high school principals reported incidents.

The scale of abuse has grown beyond school hallways. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said CyberTipline reports rose from 4,700 in 2023 to 67,000 in 2024, then surged to 440,000 in the first six months of 2026, including deepfakes. Albany County school leaders said they are also working on a broader AI policy that could be adopted next summer, signaling that the district is trying to set guardrails now before the next wave of student misuse arrives.