England to Criminalize Sexually Explicit ‘Deepfake’ Images: A Big Step Towards Ensuring Digital Safety!

The United Kingdom has passed a new legislation that will see people who make explicit images of other people’s faces without their consent face criminal records or an unlimited fine. A deepfake in an image that has been altered using Artificial Intelligence to replace one person’s face with that of another. According to the Ministry of Justice, the fine will apply to the perpetrator even if they did not intend to share it. They could also face jail terms if the image is shared widely. 

Over recent years, there has been a rise in the use of technology to include the faces of celebrities, especially women celebrities in pornographic films. One of the celebrities whose face was used as part of a deepfake video is Cathy Newman, the Channel 4 News Presenter. The news presenter revealed that the incident was “deeply invasive”. The perpetrator of the deepfake is yet to be found to date. 

The Online Safety Act which was legislated and passed last year makes the sharing of deep fakes illegal but the new law will prosecute people that they had no intention of sharing but want to cause distress to the victim. 

A law professor at Durham University, Clare McGlynn informed the Today Programme that the new law has limitations as “it will only criminalise where you can prove a person created the image with the intention to cause distress”, making it hard to curb the offence.