Victorian schoolgirls have been confronted with nudes of themselves online. They never took them.

Imagine being a teenage girl and seeing a nude photo of yourself circulating online, especially one that you never took.

That is the reality for 50 young women and girls from a private school in Melbourne's outer suburbs, who have been the victims of an AI-generated nude photo scandal.

The targeted students ranged from years nine to 12 at Bacchus Marsh Grammar, northwest of the city. They had fake explicit images shared of them, according to principal Andrew Neal.

The images were circulating on social media platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat.

Mr Neal said images of students' faces were taken from social media before being manipulated using AI to make "obscene photographs".

Even though the photos themselves are fake, police are treating this as child abuse material, and thus, the perpetrator could face very serious consequences, per 7News.

"Officers have been told a number images were sent to a person in the Melton area via an online platform on Friday, 7 June," Victoria police said in a statement. "Police have arrested a teenager in relation to explicit images being circulated online. He was released pending further inquiries."

The Herald Sun reports that the school was made aware of the incident on Monday.

Principal Neal said that the victims of the online deep faking attack are being supported by the school while they find the perpetrator.

Image: Baccus Marsh Grammar School.

"It's appalling. It is something that strikes to the heart of students, particularly girls growing up at this age," Mr Neal said in a statement to the ABC.

"They should be able to learn and go about their business without this kind of nonsense."

Neal added that while it would make sense that it was a student at the school who created the explicit images, all lines of inquiry aren't being ruled out. 

"These things are not funny… they are basically vicious and therefore they should be dealt with appropriately," Mr Neal said.  

Bacchus Marsh Grammar, an elite private school with fees ranging from $6893 to $13,876 annually, is located 50km northwest of Melbourne's CBD. It currently has more than 2,300 students across three campuses.

It's not the first time that generative AI has been used for explicit reasons in a school.

Just days before the Baccus Marsh incident, a 15-year-old from Salesian College in Chadstone was caught for using AI to make explicit images of a teacher.

The student was expelled, and the school is currently supporting the teacher at the centre of the attack.

Bad behaviour in schools seems quite prevalent these days, with another recent scandal at Yarra Valley Grammar seeing young students rate their female classmates into categories including 'mid', 'cuties', 'object', 'get out' and 'unrapable'.

Read on:

• Melbourne schoolboys have been caught 'ranking' their classmates. The reaction speaks volumes.
• 'A teen boy once told me a classmate was "rapable". Here's what he says about that now.'

- With AAP.