Legislation to criminalise the production and distribution of sexually explicit deepfakes will be introduced to the NSW parliament today in a bid to better protect women and girls.
The amendment to the Crimes Act 1900 will make the production of sexually explicit deepfakes that are designed to be a depiction of a real, identifiable person punishable by up to three years’ jail.
Sharing or threatening to share these deepfakes will also become a crime punishable by up to three years’ jail.
As part of the reform, the government will also criminalise the creation, recording and distribution of sexually explicit audio, whether real or designed to sound like a real person.
NSW Minister for Women Jodie Harrison said the reforms were designed to protect women and girls who are most often the victims of sexually explicit deepfakes.
“This Government takes image-based abuse seriously, and these new laws will criminalise behaviour that is becoming more common with the use of AI,” Harrison said on Thursday.
“We are making sure that deepfakes are not weaponised against women, by strengthening the protections afforded to them.”
According to the Human Rights Commission, a deepfake is defined as a digital photo, video or sound file of a real person that has been edited to create an extremely realistic, but false depiction of them doing or saying something that they did not actually do or say.
Sexually explicit deepfakes may appear to show a person naked or partially naked, or engaging in sexual activity.
In NSW, it is already a crime to record or distribute intimate images of a person without their consent (or threaten to do so).
NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said the changes were designed to keep up with AI.
“This bill closes a gap in NSW legislation that leaves women vulnerable to AI-generated sexual exploitation,” Daley said.
“We are ensuring that anyone who seeks to humiliate, intimidate or degrade someone using AI can be prosecuted.”
NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin the devastation caused by image-based abuse cannot be underestimated.
“Rapid developments in AI have made it easy to create extremely life-like, sexually explicit depictions of real people,” Tonkin said.
“These images are humiliating and degrading in themselves, and they can be shared widely and used for intimidation or extortion.
“We know that women and girls are the main targets of deepfake images. This is terrifying technology, which can be weaponised to cause immense harm.”