The letter emphasized that sharing non-consensual explicit deepfake images is a crime in Massachusetts and that school leadership must work to stop their spread.

State officials issued the guidance after a Globe report last week found that Massachusetts schools have failed to implement policies to address sexual harassment and Artificial Intelligence.

The Globe analysis found that AI-generated sexual harassment is addressed in nine of 113 school district policies posted on the website of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Only five mentioned that disciplinary action would be taken against students who used AI to create harmful images of others.

Wednesday’s letter reminded local school officials that deepfakes can trigger mandated reporting requirements for teachers and other staff who are required to notify authorities when they believe a child has been harmed. It also offered a list of resources on sexual harassment, cyberbullying, digital literacy, AI, and more.

Last August, state education officials issued guidelines for the responsible use of AI in classrooms, but they did not give specific guidance on the technology and sexual harassment until now.

The Globe reported last week that Megan Mancini had spent months looking for justice after a fake AI-generated naked image of her daughter Grace circulated the hallways of Hingham Middle School last fall. And for a long time, nothing came of it.

The eighth-grade boy who created them was not punished by the school district. Mancini said Hingham administrators also refused her requests to address the problem in the student handbook.

After Mancini went public with her story, Governor Maura Healey contacted her. Mancini said she finally felt heard.

In a phone call on Thursday, Mancini said the governor told her she was “appalled” by Hingham Public Schools inaction and “couldn’t understand why nothing has been done.”

Healey explained that the issue hit close to home, Mancini said, because she and her partner are raising children at a time when AI generated images are flooding schools. The governor’s office confirmed that Healey spoke with Mancini.

“It’s both terrible and totally unacceptable that young people today are living with the fear that their classmates might create and distribute AI-generated nude images of them,” Healey said in a statement. “They and their parents deserve to know that, if that happens, their school and community officials will take it seriously and that it would be investigated with perpetrators held accountable just like any other crime.”

The governor urged parents and young people to have conversations about deepfakes so people understand that these AI creations are wrong, illegal and harmful.

Deepfake nude pictures of teens are not unique to Massachusetts.

In the last school year across the county, 15 percent of students reported seeing sexually explicit deepfakes of someone associated with their school, according to a recent report by the Center for Democracy and Technology.

For as little at $4.99, a teen can upload a headshot of a classmate and generate a deepfake image in an instant. The websites that create them are rapidly multiplying. Hundreds are now available even when mobile app stores ban them, according to the social network analysis company Graphika.

Some students are creating multiple explicit images of their peers and sharing them online.

Last month, school administrators at the Pentucket Regional Middle-High School in West Newbury learned that a student created a social media account featuring “inappropriate images” of classmates that they speculate was created using AI.

“The account was identified by a student, who promptly reported it to school officials,” principal Brenda Erhardt, said in an email sent to parents and shared with the Globe.

The Essex County District Attorney’s office confirmed that they are investigating the allegations. No charges have been issued and the office would not provide additional information.

The student handbook for the Middle-High School does prohibit using “technological methods” for sexual harassment, but doesn’t explicitly mention AI. Neither does a policy posted on the district’s website on the appropriate use of digital technologies.

The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Across the country, less than one-quarter of teachers said their school had policies for how to address deepfake images, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology.

In Hingham, state Senator Patrick O’Connor also communicated with Mancini, the mother of middle school victim of an AI deepfake.

“The increased misuse of social media and AI technology is something that concerns me,” wrote O’Connor, from Weymouth, in an email.

O’Connor said he was supporting legislation to tighten laws combating for child pornography and AI.

Mancini and other mothers in Hingham are pushing the school district to address sexual harassment and AI in the student handbook.

“I’ve been saying this all along, the school needs to act,” Mancini said “I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

Material from prior Globe coverage was used in this story.

Mariana Simões can be reached at mariana.simoes@globe.com. Follow her on X @MariRebuaSimoes.