New nation-leading laws to combat the use of deepfakes to create violent or sexually degrading images or videos have come into effect as of today.
Under the laws, people who solely use artificial intelligence or other digital technology to create invasive, humiliating or degrading images that either closely resemble, or purport to be a real person could face fines of up to $20,000 or four years imprisonment.
People found guilty of an offence could also be required to surrender any records and equipment used to create the deepfakes.
While there are existing image-based offences in the Summary Offences Act that target deepfakes that have been created by editing or manipulating real images, the new laws will ensure that deepfake images that are generated entirely by AI or other digital technology will be captured as an offence.
Authorities estimate as much as 90-95 percent of deepfakes are non-consensual porn; and 99 per cent of victims in deepfake porn are women. The eSafety Commissioner has stated that explicit deepfakes have increased on the internet as much as 550 per cent year on year since 2019.
The new laws passed Parliament earlier this year in a joint effort between Government and Connie Bonaros MLC.
Assistant Minister for Artificial Intelligence, Michael Brown MP, also undertook extensive work on this issue as Chair of the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
Sadly, there have been reports of school students being targeted as victims of deepfakes both in Australia and around the world. To combat this, students across South Australian schools are being taught about online safety and the dangers of social media, as part of important reforms to the child safety curriculum by the Malinauskas Labor Government.
South Australian schools have been delivering an evidence-based program focused on preventing or mitigating issues associated with online safety, cyberbullying, body image, mental health and wellbeing.
The curriculum, for the first time has content on coercive control, strategies for detecting deepfakes, understanding artificial intelligence and the impact of negative online influencers.
These reforms are a great example of how we need to not only ensure our children are educated on the fast-evolving changes of technology, but also ensure our laws are up-to-date to afford that legal protection from online harms.
As put by Kyam Maher
While there is tremendous potential to use artificial intelligence and other digital technology to enrich our society, there is a dark side.
Using this technology to create violent, degrading or sexually explicit images of someone without their consent is something we will not tolerate.
Unfortunately we have seen far too many incidents across the country of women and girls being targeted by this insidious behaviour.
These are strong laws with tough penalties that send a clear message: engage in this kind of vile behaviour and there will be serious consequences.
As put by Blair Boyer
This initiative will build on the strong outcomes we are seeing from our ban on students using mobile phones at schools and provide further support for families trying to tackle the negative impacts of social media.
The Department for Education has worked closely with the eSafety Commissioner, and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) in developing the curriculum to ensure it is up to date and effective in explaining the risks of this technology.
Schools can't solve these issues alone, but education has a key role to play in supporting our children and young people to stay safe, focus on learning and build healthy, respectful relationships.
As put by Michael Brown
South Australia is leading the way on taking advantage of the positive opportunities AI presents, while defending against the risks that come with the technology.
It is important that our legislation moves at pace, as the prevalence of AI continues to grow.
