Jenna Ortega recently explained why she quit Twitter in a candid interview with The New York Times.
The actress revealed that she decided to leave the platform after coming across explicit images of herself generated by artificial intelligence as a teenager. These images, along with an influx of inappropriate messages from fans, ultimately led to her deleting her account.
“I hate AI,” Ortega said, expressing his strong dislike for AI, but also acknowledging the positive potential of AI, such as early detection of disease. However, he stressed that it is unacceptable to misuse AI to create explicit content targeted at minors.
“Did I, at 14, create a Twitter account because I had to and enjoy looking at salacious edited content of myself as a child? No. It’s horrifying. It’s corrupting. It’s wrong,” she said.
Reflecting on her early experiences on social media, Ortega recalled receiving an unsolicited explicit image from a follower when she was just 12 years old — the first in a series of nasty online interactions that left her feeling uncomfortable and distressed.
The pressure to maintain a social media presence eventually became too much, and the exposure of her hit show only exacerbated the problem, so she deleted her accounts a couple of years ago.
Ortega, who began her acting career at age 9, admitted that while there are moments when she regrets starting out so early, she remains grateful for the lessons she learned from the experience.
Her industry experience gives her a deep understanding of the filmmaking process, making her feel confident and at ease on set.