Creators of deepfake porn should face tougher sanctions, a Scottish victim has argued.
‘Sophie’, not her real name, called for the crime to be treated more seriously in Scotland after AI-generated naked images of her were circulated without her consent.
In August, Callum Brooks was fined £335 by Glasgow Sheriff Court for creating and sharing images of Sophie in a “state of undress” among his friends. Brooks was prosecuted under a part of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016.
Distress
Sophie, who knew Brooks from school, said: “It was a big feeling of betrayal. It disgusts me that you could do that to someone you would call a friend.
“It played on my mind for a couple of days until I admitted to my mum I felt embarrassed. I worried if these images might be on a website. If you googled my name – would it come up?”
She added: “I would like to see it being treated with more severity. I feel new legislation should be made around AI-specific crimes.”
‘Easily done’
Dr Lynsay Shepherd, an expert in cybersecurity at Abertay University, warned: “As technology advances, it’s tricky to try and stay one step ahead.
“With these nudification applications there’s not much you can do in defending yourself because it could be any image that’s been uploaded.
“These applications have various different features of what you want to add to the image. It’s very depressing and very, very easily done.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said that it “keeps the law under continual review and will consider through consultation whether further changes are required to tackle the creation of deepfake sexual images”.
Action
A Bill brought forward by Baroness Charlotte Owen to ban the creation or solicitation of non-consensual deepfake porn in England and Wales is advancing through Westminster at the moment.
My Image, My Choice, a campaign group supporting the Bill, found that one app for creating sexually explicit deepfakes processed 600,000 images in the first three weeks following its launch – 99 per cent of the images were of women.
Lady Owen observed: “Anyone can walk into the pub, take a picture of a woman without her consent and then create and own a naked, sexually explicit image of her, or insert that photograph into a pornographic situation”, adding “This is abuse.”
Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice recently closed a public consultation on proposals for a similar law to criminalise the creation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfake images of adults.
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