The Federal Government will introduce new legislation to ban deepfake pornography under a suite of “immediate” steps to combat Australia’s “scourge” of violence against women.
In response to mounting public uproar over leaders’ lack of action against the epidemic – which has seen an average of one woman allegedly murdered every four days since January 1 – Anthony Albanese convened a snap national cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning.
Following the crisis talks, the Prime Minister announced a $925 million investment over five years to help women escape violent relationships, as well as measures to combat “toxic male extremist views about women online”.
That included legislation to outlaw the creation and non-consensual distribution of deepfake – a portmanteau of ‘deep learning’ and ‘fake’ – porn, and the sharing of sexually-explicit material using technology such as artificial intelligence.
Citing growing fears about the role of online content in “normalising gendered violence”, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced $6.5 million in the upcoming budget would be dedicated to a pilot of “age-assurance technologies” to reduce children’s exposure to harmful content.
“I’m well aware as a parent of myself to two young girls, there is a weight that parents are feeling about how to help their children navigate the online environment,” Ms Rowland told reporters.
“Reducing this exposure to harmful and degrading pornography will better protect the women and children of Australia and we will have more to say about our plans to strengthen online safety.”
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said that parents need to be given “the support and resources to have those conversations, and we do need to counter this violent online material”.
“We know that to end violence against women, we do need generational change and we need positive role models for young boys to ensure that those negative stereotypes are countered, and that influencers that promote damaging attitudes towards women are also countered,” Ms Rishworth said.
While image-based abuse – commonly referred to as ‘revenge porn’ – remains a concern, especially among young women, attention has turned in recent months to the impact and distribution of deepfake pornography in Aussie schools.
“This issue is poised to have far-reaching consequences for Australians, particularly children and teenagers who are increasingly vulnerable,” Elegant Media founder and Melbourne-based AI expert, Anuska Bandara, previously told news.com.au.
“The peril lies in the fact that the real individuals have no control over what deepfakes, created using advanced AI techniques, might communicate. Exploiting this technology, scammers are leveraging deepfakes to influence unsuspecting individuals, leading them into dangerous situations or even engaging in the distribution of explicit content.
“The ramifications of this misuse pose a significant threat to the wellbeing and safety of the younger generation as they navigate the online landscape.”
As is often the case with sexual abuse and harassment, the path to justice for victims of deepfake pornography is also not an easy one. Not only does the costly, time-consuming burden of legal recourse fall on them; it’s further complicated by the fact most people sharing abusive images online are doing so anonymously, and can be harder to pin down.
“In Australia, deepfake victims have limited possible causes to seek damages via civil action. Again, in most cases, the victim will not be able to find the wrongdoer who created the non-consensual pornographic image,” University of Melbourne’s Professor Jeannie Marie Paterson explained earlier this year.
“This means the most viable defendant will be the platform that hosted the image, or the tech company that produced the technology to create the deepfake.”
Asked on Wednesday how Australia can reduce access to the likes of deepfakes – given so much is posted overseas – Ms Rowland referred to existing laws related to the sharing of intimate images, saying this would work in a similar way.
“We perceive that this will be part of that ongoing piece of work to ensure that that kind of material is not made available, and it has the appropriate records to be taken down because (in) many of these cases, what the affected person wants to see is the material taken down,” Ms Rowland said.
“We are confident that, based on existing precedent that we have in relation to this type of content that forms deepfakes, that we can have meaningful and impactful change in this area.”
Image-based abuse is a breach of the Online Safety Act 2021, and under the Act, perpetrators can be issued a fine or imposed with jail time in some jurisdictions. Any Australian whose images or videos have been altered to appear sexualised and are published online without consent can contact eSafety for help to have them removed.