Sora AI officially dropped this year in September. People thought it would be a cool, new tech trend, similar to filters or aesthetic photo-editing apps. Instead, the app quickly turned into something way more serious, especially for highschoolers. Sora uses super-advanced video generation to create highly lifelike videos of anyone performing any action.
Many students say that Sora is unsafe, “At first, it seemed like a fun tool. I remember clicking through Snapchat stories and seeing images of people I knew, but they were doing things unlike them,” freshman Aurora Sampel, an avid social media user states, “It was funny… but now it’s just used to embarrass people, spread rumors, and get people in trouble.”
The general public is drawn to AI because it offers the ability to create almost anything including, hyper-realistic videos of anyone doing virtually anything. Anyone can type in a simple prompt and generate clips that make it appear as if a real person is in whatever scenario they choose. This issue has become increasingly common in the dean’s office; Sampel notes that she personally knows students who have been called in due to AI-generated videos.
The problem is that Sora videos look so real, it’s almost impossible to tell they’re fake. Sometimes, the only way to tell a video is from Sora AI is the watermark. All it takes to make one of these recordings is a couple of minutes to type a prompt, and, suddenly, there’s a video. Simply posting it, or even sending it to a group chat, and suddenly a video is now spreading around the school that ruins someone’s reputation. Even after you explain it’s fake, some people will still believe what they saw.
Since its release, Sora has been used for everything from fake celebrity scandals to fake videos of students. Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to keep pace with this technology, as it isn’t feasible to ban an entire platform. Administrators can restrict access on school devices and send out broad communications outlining the consequences of its misuse, but measures like this can only go so far. Many people fail to realize how rapidly situations can escalate online, often not understanding the severity until they experience it firsthand.
Experts and parents keep saying that Sora needs more rules, more limits, more ways to tell real videos from AI ones. But right now, the public is stuck protecting themselves in a world where anyone can fake anything. The media is starting to catch on to the AI video uprising, whether AI is being posted on TikTok by new accounts without a face or by people in power on Truth Social. Yet the actual AI videos aren’t the only thing people are using to point out this new weapon. “Sora Not Sorry,” the third episode of the 28th season of the popular show “South Park,” premiered in November of 2025 when the Sora problem was at its height.
Sora is supposed to be creative and helpful, but for a lot of students, it’s turned into a tool for bullying, rumors, and straight-up manipulation. Until something changes, teens are left dealing with the consequences of a technology that’s way more powerful than the people using it.
