Tasmania moves to ban 'disgraceful' non-consensual…

Earlier this year, a significant deepfake incident occurred at a private school in Tasmania, where 21 girls were targeted by peers. The event involved the creation and distribution of AI-generated pornographic images of the students within a boys' group chat. While five boys subsequently left the school, no criminal charges were laid against them at the time, highlighting a gap in the existing legal framework regarding image-based sexual abuse.

What happened

The incident involved the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence to generate explicit imagery of students without their consent. The perpetrators shared these deepfakes through a private group chat, causing significant distress to the victims. This case, alongside reports of other forms of image-based sexual abuse, prompted the Tasmanian government to announce new legislative reforms. The proposed laws aim to make it illegal to share or threaten to share intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes and revenge porn. Government officials, including the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Jo Palmer, described the non-consensual sharing of such images as disgraceful and underscored the need for these legal changes to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable. The state government is currently drafting the legislation and intends to release it for public consultation by the end of the year, marking Tasmania as the final Australian jurisdiction to address these specific forms of digital abuse through criminal law.