Predators who create or share explicit deepfakes of people without their consent will face up to two years in prison as part of a new crackdown.
A raft of new criminal offences are to be introduced, specifically targeting those who use the technology to make sexual content against their victims’ wishes.
Taking intimate images without consent and installing of equipment with the intention of doing so will also be criminalised.
The move comes amid Metro‘s This Is Not Right campaign, which aims to address the epidemic of violence against women.
Victims Minister Alex Davies Jones said the new legislation would send a ‘clear message to cowards that image-based abuse will not be tolerated in our society’.
She said: ‘I know Metro readers, like me, are horrified to read stories from women who have been digitally degraded by so called “deepfakes”.
‘These hyper-realistic, sexually explicit images are created and widely shared online, often without the victim even knowing they exist.
‘The impact of this abhorrent and deeply misogynistic behaviour can be as devastating, robbing people of their dignity and safety.’
She added: ‘I want to thank Metro for their This Is Not Right campaign which is helping to address the epidemic of violence against women.
‘Together, we must pull every lever available to us to better protect women and girls.’
The proposed legislation also aims to strengthen existing laws that ban the taking of images without consent in certain circumstances.
Offences including upskirting were criminalised in the Voyeurism Act which passed in June 2018.
As part of the new plans, the government will repeal those existing offences in order to significantly broaden their scope.
Jess Davies, author of the book No One Wants To See Your D*ck, previously wrote for Metro about her experience of cyberflashing.
She said: ‘Intimate-image abuse is a national emergency that is causing significant, long-lasting harm to women and girls who face a total loss of control over their digital footprint, at the hands of online misogyny.’
The new offences will be set out in the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said will be ‘introduced when parliamentary time allows’.
Deepfake technology can place somebody’s face on pornographic images or even videos to create eerily realistic content.
The rapid growth in artificial intelligence in recent years has contributed to the concerning spread of the issue, leading Labour to commit to banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes in its election manifesto last year.
The government has announced a range of new offences to tackle online abuse:
Technology Minister Baroness Jones said the acts covered by the proposals are ‘not just cowardly’, but ‘deeply damaging, particularly for women and girls who are disproportionately targeted’.
She added: ‘With these new measures, we’re sending an unequivocal message: creating or sharing these vile images is not only unacceptable but criminal.’
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