UK Government To Criminalize Sexually Explicit Deepfake Images

The U.K. government announced on Tuesday (Jan 7) it would outlaw the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfake images.

This article was written by Graeme Hanna and originally published by ReadWrite. 

The action has been taken to protect women and young girls, who are mainly targeted with this type of material. It is already illegal to make such imagery of children, but the law is being extended to protect those aged over 18.

Deepfake is a term given to AI-powered images or videos that have been altered or edited to depict a real person.

The United Kingdom criminalized revenge porn – the dissemination of intimate images without consent to cause distress – in 2015, but further action means perpetrators could now be charged and face up to two years in prison for deepfakes.

The U.K.-based Revenge Porn Helpline has outlined how image-based abuse, using deepfake material, has increased by 400% over the last eight years.

This week in Hong Kong, the police busted a syndicate using AI deepfakes for romance crypto scams.

A statement from the British Ministry of Justice said, “The proliferation of these hyper-realistic images has grown at an alarming rate, causing devastating harm to victims, particularly women and girls who are often the target.”

Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones stated, “It is unacceptable that one in three women have been victims of online abuse.”

“This demeaning and disgusting form of chauvinism must not become normalized, and as part of our Plan for Change we are bearing down on violence against women – whatever form it takes,” she added.

The current Labour government, in power since last July, has delivered on one of its manifesto pledges, while the previous Conservative administration had made similar proposals to outlaw sexually explicit deepfakes.

Labour will proceed with the proposed law, as part of a wider crime and policing bill, but no date has yet been given for its introduction.