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Australian police are investigating the distribution of deepfake pornographic images of female students.
Sydney
CNN
—
Australian authorities are investigating the distribution of deepfake pornographic images of around 50 schoolgirls, allegedly created by teenagers using artificial intelligence.
The discovery comes as the federal government pushes forward with new legislation to impose prison time on perpetrators who use AI tools to create and share humiliating and defamatory images of their victims.
The United States and other countries are trying to address the alarming rise in deepfake porn, in which deepfakes of nude female school students are created and shared, some of which are purportedly male.
Victoria Police confirmed they had arrested a teenager “in relation to the distribution of indecent images on the internet” and released him pending further investigation.
The images were reportedly created using photos posted on social media by 50 female students at Bacchus Marsh Grammar, a co-ed school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria.
The school's principal, Andrew Neil, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the victim was a female student in years 9 to 12, and could be aged between 14 and 18.
The boy's age and identity are unknown, but Neal told ABC: “Logically, [offender] It's someone from school.”
The mother of a 16-year-old girl from Bacchus Marsh Grammar High School, whose photo was not used, told the ABC on Wednesday that her daughter vomited after seeing the “cropped” photos online.
“I went to pick up my daughter from a sleepover and she was extremely upset, vomiting and incredibly raw,” her mother told ABC Radio Melbourne, only giving her first name, Emily.
The school said in a statement that it was offering counselling to students and cooperating with police in their investigation.
“The wellbeing of Bacchus Marsh Grammar students and their families is of paramount importance to the school and is being addressed,” the statement said.
Social media companies such as X and Meta say they ban all non-consensual pornographic images on their platforms, but explicit AI-generated images continue to spread rapidly online.
Last November, Francesca Mani, a 14-year-old New Jersey high school student, led a campaign to call for a federal crackdown on AI-generated deepfake porn in the US, after she claimed images of her and dozens of her classmates at Westfield High School had been manipulated.
High-profile victims of explicitly doctored images include Taylor Swift and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In March, Ocasio-Cortez introduced federal legislation, the Stop Explicit Fabricated Images and Non-Consent Editing Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act), that would give victims the power to sue people who create deepfakes without their consent.
But a bipartisan bill backed by Republican leaders failed to pass a unanimous consent motion on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Victoria is the only state in Australia where sharing deepfake pornography is a crime.
In 2022, the state government introduced provisions making the use of technology to create or share child abuse material or sexually explicit material without consent a punishable by three years' imprisonment.
This month, the Australian government introduced legislation that would make it a criminal offence to distribute deepfake pornography nationwide.
Under the proposed law, offenders could face up to six years in prison for sharing sexually explicit deepfake material without consent.
If the perpetrator also creates deepfake content that is shared without permission, the penalty could increase to seven years in prison.
It is part of the country's response to gender-based violence, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called a “national crisis”.
According to the Counting Dead Women project, 35 women have been murdered so far this year, mostly by current or former partners.
Last month, the state government appointed Australia's first Parliamentary Secretary for Men's Behaviour Change.
Tim Richardson MP said in making his appointment that he would focus on the impact of the internet and social media on men's attitudes towards women.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said in a statement on Wednesday that the girl's actions were “disgraceful and misogynistic”.
“Women and girls deserve to be respected in the classroom, online and everywhere in our communities, which is why we have laws against this behavior and teach respectful relationships in our schools to stop violence before it starts,” Allan said.
