On March 4th, 2025, Ophea hosted a webinar in collaboration with Julie S. Lalonde and Dr. Kaitlynn Mendes discussing the topic of deepfakes and their consequences. This session included a tour of Ophea’s latest classroom resource to support addressing this topic and concluded with a Q&A panel moderated by Ophea Health and Physical Education Curriculum Consultant, Andrea Haefele (she/her).
Access the full webinar on our YouTube channel.
Dr. Kaitlynn Mendes is the Canada Research Chair in Inequality and Gender at Western University. She has over a decade of experience researching young people’s use of digital technologies in their sexual lives and has led three funded projects in this area that contributed to academic knowledge in the United Kingdom and Canada. She has also mobilized this knowledge through accessible educational resources that have helped over 35,000 young people, 1,400 teachers, 200 schools, and 800 members of the public to better identify and respond to technology-facilitated forms of sexual violence and sexism.
Dr. Mendes is one of the founders of Digitally Informed Youth (DIY) safety team, that aims to empower young people and provide them with tailored resources, so they feel safe online, and have a better understanding of digital ethics. Dr. Mendes and her team conducted 25 focus groups with youth across Canada, as well as launched a nationwide survey. Their research found that 28% of respondents have had at least one type of harm (online harassment, cyberstalking, spycams/upskirting, non-consensual sharing of nude images, pressure to send intimate images, deepfake nude, sextortion) happen to them online, and 47% of respondents have had at least one type of harm happen to someone they know. Dr. Mendes and her team identified that there is more support needed for young people, as well as for different institutions to help young people who are experiencing tech facilitated sexual violence.
Julie S. Lalonde, women's rights advocate and public educator, has spent the last 23 years working to end gender-based violence in Canada primarily through bystander intervention and community support. She is the creator of the Draw the Line Campaign, and trains thousands of Canadians each year on sexual violence and stalking prevention.
Both Dr. Mendes and Julie noted that there are not enough resources out there when it comes to tech facilitated violence, and very few addressing deepfakes, which are unfortunately becoming more and more common.
Key Statistics You Should Know:
Deepfakes are highly realistic media manipulations powered by advanced artificial intelligence (AI), which alter or entirely generate images, videos, voices, and text. These digital fakes are increasingly difficult to detect, leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation, from celebrities and politicians to everyday people.
- Over 90% of deepfakes online are non-consensual, pornographic clips of women (Government of Canada, 2023).
- 74% of Canadians under 30 have encountered a deepfake (The Canadian Press, 2024).
- 31% of young people come across them on a weekly basis (Government of Canada, 2023).
Key Audience Questions & Expert Answers
The webinar concluded with a question-and-answer session. Participants had submitted questions upon registration, as well as could ask questions via the ‘chat’ function.
As people who have been doing this work for years, how are you managing the discouraging landscape of sexual violence these days?
Both Dr. Mendes and Julie discussed the importance of looking for hope and holding on to the ‘good’ that is happening. Dr. Mendes noted that it is inspiring seeing new groups and organizations working in this area. Julie explained that talking to people and having meaningful conversations with people in this space gives her hope.
How can teachers address the prevalence of content creators with misogynistic messaging. How can we reach boys and young men who are following these types of influential people?
Dr. Mendes explained that getting curious about what is it about these people that are appealing to boys/young men is important and talking through it in small group settings with peers. This gives young people a chance to explore and challenge thoughts about misogynistic messaging.
Julie shared the resource from White Ribbon, a campaign called ‘My Friend Max Hate’, which helps facilitate these kinds of conversations.
Who is it that are making the deepfakes of teen girls? Is it other teens, people the know, older people?
Dr. Mendes explained that within school communities, a lot of it is peers- people making deepfakes of someone in their community.
What is the policy or legal landscape regarding deepfakes?
Both Dr. Mendes and Julie discussed that currently, there is no specific criminal laws in Ontario about deepfake nude images. Julie highlighted that this is why it is important to discuss the ‘moral argument’ with young people, and encourage them to challenge their friends, as peer acceptance is the primary driver in young people. Dr. Mendes noted that they found in their research that fear-based approaches don't work, so instead of discussing potential legal implications, we need to teach young people their rights and responsibilities.
New Classroom Supports
Ophea’s Gender-Based Violence Prevention Education Resources have been developed to increase educators’ understanding of what is gender-based violence and harassment and to raise awareness of how they can be prevented through early education and honest classroom conversations.
Ophea has launched a new resource to support educators in discussing the topic of tech-facilitated violence. The full series builds upon scenarios from the Draw the Line sexual violence prevention provincial campaign to support engaging in dialogue and enhancing learning on consent, healthy relationships and gender-based violence and harassment prevention.
The resource includes a scenario card (graphic), curriculum document, discussion guide, video, and takeaways and strategies, and is available in English and French. Students can use the questions to focus their conversations, think critically about the scenario in the activity and uncover the root issue in it, and analyze their responses as bystanders. Unpacking the scenarios through critical thinking, group dialogue, and individual reflection leads students to examine their proposed actions as bystanders from moral and ethical stances and generate solutions about how to safely and reasonably respond.
Updated expert videos to support educators in using the classroom activities with students are also available:
- Introduction to Gender-Based Violence Prevention: This video provides an overview of rates of gender-based violence in Canada and the important role of bystanders in preventing gender-based violence.
- Introduction to Consent: We often ask “What is gender-based violence?” when we should ask “What is consent?” If we understand consent, and if as a society we prioritize and respect consent, we take a huge step towards ending gender-based violence.
- Creating Space for Constructive Classroom Conversations: Talking about gender-based violence prevention is hard and can stir up a lot of uncomfortable feelings for everyone involved. These tips, based on Julie S. Lalonde’s real-world experience facilitating such conversations across Canada and around the world, will help set the tone for constructive classroom conversations.
Ophea extends our deep thanks to Dr. Mendes, Julie S. Lalonde, and all attendees for learning with us. We look forward to continuing to engage our audience in important discussions about gender-based violence prevention. As members of a school community, it is all of our responsibilities to ensure that staff, students, and community partners have the skills to build healthy relationships but also establishing positive patterns of communication based on respect.