Grok, Elon Musks’ generative AI chatbot for X, has been used to render images of thousands of underage girls and women naked, or in various states of undress and sexualised poses.
I am wondering once again when the Australian government will take serious steps to protect the images and likeness of women and girls everywhere?
Denmark sprinted ahead in the race to protect its citizens from the rising tide of AI abuse in 2025, giving citizens explicit legal ownership over their face, voice, and body. This will empower victims of AI-generated deepfakes to demand removal, seek damages, and crucially, allow them to hold platforms accountable.
In a digital landscape where synthetic media is outpacing regulation at breakneck speed, this is the kind of legislative backbone that Australia desperately needs but sorely lacks. While pornographic deepfake content is illegal, I don’t believe the legislation is comprehensive enough.
Actions such as the commands to nudify girls and women everywhere add to the misogyny and sexism deeply entrenched in the algorithms, and in society at large.
The government have taken some small steps to make tech safer for some cohorts, however.
The federal government decided in 2025 to ban under-16s from social media. There was much fanfare from anxious parents and performative nods from commentators who incessantly discuss how much better it was ‘back in their day’. The ambition, we are told, is to shield young minds from digital harm and improve mental health outcomes. A very wise aspiration. However, it does not go far enough if we consider the harm that generative AI can unleash. The social media ban is not the smoking gun we are told it is.
Let’s start with the concerning elephant in the room; control variables. The federal government speaks of mental health as if it exists in a silo, isolated from the harmful culture it routinely fails to address. How will they control for the ever growing despair of the housing crisis that sees more and more Australian families living in cars? For the existential dread fuelled by climate inaction, and the continued approval of fossil fuel projects? For the financial strain of the cost-of-living crisis that has parents at their wits end creating a home environment no social media ban can solve?
Generative AI that has even the most tech literate of us unsure about what content is real and what is completely falsified, in the uncanny valley of our timelines. There is also the polarising ideological landscape and the precarious job market that makes the future look bleak for many young people. And don’t forget that the teens can still be bombarded with gambling ads during televised sport, which is a well-documented social harm. These are the true determinants of health. To suggest that removing young Australians access to social media while ignoring these serious issues is not in my opinion, sincere. Don’t get me wrong, I have deep concerns about how we spend our time online.
As a psychologist, I will state plainly often that the risks of generative AI and the way the current algorithms are designed are not psychologically safe for anyone. They are engineered to colonise attention and monetise emotion. Let’s not pretend this is purely a youth problem. The government’s narrative conveniently ignores that Australians over 65 are the most likely to fall victim to online scams and are prolific and often uncritical users of digital platforms. Their mental health and financial security are being eroded in a different, but equally devastating scenario. The focus on the young feels like it just isn’t enough.
Concerningly, the child, protected until their 16th birthday, turns 18 and logs on. What awaits them? The product is ultimately unchanged and still just as harmful as it is currently. Their images can still be used to create deepfake images of them or their peers in sexualised ways without their consent. They become simply older targets for the same algorithmic outrage machines, the same ecosystems of hate speech, virulent misogyny, generative AI deepfakes, and state-sponsored disinformation. The government’s ban does nothing to clean this mess up. It merely delays a user’s entry into a polluted town square it has no plan to clean up.
This ban is, at best, one step on a path requiring a hundred. Where is the robust, platform-agnostic legislation holding tech barons who are only chasing growth and profit at the expense of all of us accountable for their code? Where is the massive investment in digital literacy, starting in primary school and extending to aged care? Where is the genuinely well-funded long term investment in social determinants of health that also shape the development and growth of Australian teens?
I’m sad to say that the ban without immediate action on the potential harms of generative AI looks like political theatre. It’s a sharp crackdown on a visible and concerning symptom that allows the government to be seen “doing something” while the more expensive systemic illnesses; tech barons who only care about profit, climate, housing, inequality, a broken information ecology fester unabated. It’s easier to blame the screen in a child’s hand than to fix the wicked problems of the current world that screen reflects.
The ban may create a temporary (and in many cases, necessary) digital quarantine for some, but until the government shows a fraction of the same zeal for tackling the existential issues rotting Australian society, it’s not a well rounded policy. I hope the next generation know they are deserving of a much more holistic effort.