A 16-year-old girl who became the target of a “nude” photo scandal following a schoolyard break-up has opened up about how the horrifying bullying ordeal still haunts her years later.
Despite being a high-achieving student, Tarran Frost’s final high school years were marred by relentless harassment, which included her being subjected to cruel rumours, name calling and endless taunting.
At its worst, a fake pornographic image of the Melbourne teen began circulating around the school, one that featured her face – taken from a selfie posted on her Instagram – that was superimposed onto an unknown naked woman’s body.
“I remember someone telling me, ‘your nude is going around’, and I was so confused,” Ms Frost, now 19, told news.com.au.
“I didn’t understand how that could be possible as there wasn’t any sort of nude in existence.”
Because of this Ms Frost feared the photo was actually of someone else, but after a classmate Airdropped her the snap, she was stunned by what she saw.
“I recognised my face immediately. It was a mirror pic that I’d snapped in my bathroom while wearing my bathers. But I knew in the original I was completely covered,” she explained.
“This one had been altered to make it look like I was naked, it was crazy.”
Initially, Ms Frost said the nude image was so obviously fake, that what upset her the most about the situation was the lengths someone had gone to in order to cause pain.
“I was more hurt that somebody had gone out of their way to make it,” she shared.
“I couldn’t believe that somebody disliked me so much that they wanted to embarrass me, and had spent time in their day to make it.”
Ms Frost reported the incident to her school, who in turn referred her to the eSafety Commissioner, but ultimately because the photo had never been posted online there was nothing that could be done.
Shortly after, the situation escalated when a graphic sex rumour (which was also false) that “went along with the photo” began spreading.
“It made things a lot worse. I’d started dating someone new by this point and there were people going up to him at school saying, ‘Did you know she did this?’ and calling me a ‘sl*t’.
“It also marked the beginning of the prank calls and a lot of sexually suggestive messages that were flooding my phone, coming from numbers I didn’t know.
“Sometimes my parents would answer the calls and ask for it to ‘stop’. It was pretty rough.”
As a result, she said she became really anxious, and began experiencing panic attacks – even on weekends.
“Sometimes I’d panic in class and would run to the bathroom and lock myself in,” she explained.
“Even when I wasn’t at school, I was still suffering. There was one time I was out shopping with my mum and I saw someone from school, and it set me off.
“I also went through a stage where I was hitting myself. I never did it in front of my friends, it was more at home, but it was something I couldn’t control.”
Ms Frost said when her symptoms intensified and she developed rashes across her body she began seeing a psychologist who explained “the bullying was affecting me physically”.
The nasty comments continued all through Year 11 and 12, with special events such as Ms Frost’s graduation speech ruined when another student blasted an air horn mid-address.
When she started university, the bullying thankfully stopped, but she soon found the impacts were long-lasting.
“When you’re being bullied, it becomes part of you. You know it’s not true, but when people keep saying it, you start to believe it,” Ms Frost explained.
“What further complicated it was not being able to pinpoint exactly what was going on.”
It was only during a seminar on respectful relationships that she uncovered a name for the image-based sexual abuse she endured.
“I didn’t even know it was called a ‘deepfake’ until my first year of uni. At school, it was just this photo I had to deal with,” she said.
The use of deepfakes has been increasing rapidly in recent years, but even just a short while ago when Ms Frost was in school, it was a relatively new form of digital abuse that many had never heard of.
In Australia, the laws around creating and distributing deepfake material varies from state to state.
South Australia and New South Wales have implemented state-level legislation making it illegal to create or distribute non-consensual sexualised or harmful AI-generated deepfakes. Queensland is also actively introducing legislation, while a federal law applies nationwide for sexual deepfakes.
One in 10 Australians have now experienced image-based abuse according to the Digital Harassment and Abuse of Adult Australians report.
“Looking back, I don’t think I fully understood how impactful that fake nude photo was,” said Ms Frost.
“Having a name for it was the first time I was able to acknowledge I’d been bullied and that it was a much bigger deal than I’d been made to believe.
“In school, nothing was ever done, and I guess everyone kind of dismissed it as gossip and drama.”
These days, life has improved dramatically for Ms Frost, and she’s sharing her experience as part of the Do It For Dolly Day campaign, Australia’s national day of action to end bullying, now in its eighth year.
While she’s hopeful other young Aussies won’t have to endure what she went through, she admits to feeling scared about how easily accessible AI-tech now is.
“I just want to help other people because I had no idea how much it was going to impact me after I finished school,” she said.
“It has shocked me just how easy it is for kids, or anyone for that matter, to make these harmful photos and I think that there’s a real risk it could get a lot worse.”
If you or a young person you know is struggling with bullying, please call 13 DOLLY on 13 36 55 or use the webchat through the Dolly’s Dream website. For kids and teens, it’s there 24/7.
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