For many of them, all that needs to be done is tick a box to say you’re over 18, and that you have the consent of the person in the photo.
However, more often than not, consent is not granted.
According to the Law Association: “Statistics about online deepfake videos have consistently found that 90 to 95% of them are non-consensual pornography. Almost all of them (90%) depict women.”
Overseas, Ofcom – the UK’s regulatory authority for TV, radio and online streaming services – reports that of those who say they have seen a sexual deepfake, 64% say it was of a celebrity or public figure, 15% say it was of someone they know, while 6% say it depicted themselves.
Worryingly, 17% thought it depicted someone under the age of 18.
Act MP Laura McClure during the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committtee hearing at Parliament in December. Photo/ Mark Mitchell
That’s a major concern to Secondary Principals’ Association President Vaughan Couillault.
“It’s not as low-level and as simple as the perpetrator thinks it is. It’s not cheap entertainment – it’s life-damaging work.”
McClure said that moment in the house was one of the most nerve-wracking of her life.
“Holding that up in Parliament was absolutely terrifying, it did rattle me”.
But she did it because she is worried about the impact deep-fake, sexually explicit material is having on young New Zealanders and she wanted to highlight how easily this type of content can be made.
“For the victims, it is degrading and it is devastating. It gave me the ick having to stand in Parliament and hold up the photo of myself, even knowing that it’s not actually me.”
McClure said she has been contacted by numerous people who have been impacted by deepfake-related bullying, or sextortion.
She said it had had a severe mental health impact for them, especially young people.
That’s why McClure wants to change the law, to restrict the generation and sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes.
Her Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Billwould expand the existing laws around revenge porn and intimate recordings and ensure those who produce or share deepfakes without consent face criminal accountability.
It would also ensure victims have clear pathways to seek redress and the removal of harmful content.
A move to ban non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes would not be without precedent.
The UK Government is cracking down on the practice – citing data from a Revenge Porn Helpline which showed image-based abuse using deepfakes has increased more than 400% since 2017.
Under a new offence to be introduced by the Government, perpetrators could be charged and face prosecution for both creating and sharing these images.
And in May, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Take It Down Act, which makes it a crime to publish intimate images of a person without their consent and obligates social media platforms to remove such images within 48 hours when requested by victims.
US President Donald Trump has signed a law which makes it a crime to publish intimate images of someone without their consent and obliges social media platforms to remove such images within 48 hours when requested by victims. Photo / Getty Images
McClure is hoping New Zealand can follow the lead of the US and the UK, adding that her bill is not an onerous piece of legislation.
In fact, she says, it amounts to adding a few extra lines to the Crime Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act to close the deepfake loophole.
But for now, it appears her bill is going nowhere. She has lodged it in Parliament’s member’s ballot, where it will sit with around 40 other bills which get pulled at random to be debated in the House.
It could sit there for years, untouched.
Or it could be adopted as a Government bill and pushed through Parliament by a minister at any time.
It just needs someone on the Treasury benches to agree to take it on but, at this stage, that’s not looking likely.
The Herald contacted Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, asking if he would be willing to adopt McClure’s bill as official Government legislation.
A spokesperson said that the Government was “not currently” considering this.
While McClure said this was disappointing, she also said it was not the end of the road.
“I do have support from the likes of New Zealand First, who would like to see this as a Government bill.”
Her bill could also skip the ballot process altogether and be automatically added to Parliament’s legislative agenda if it has enough bipartisan support, in the form of 61 or more non-executive MPs.
And McClure appears confident she can find the votes.
“A member from the Green Party has offered to sponsor this piece of legislation, so there is an opportunity there for us to actually get the numbers to get this across the line.”
She said she has spoken to Labour MPs who are also keen on progressing this bill, as are representatives from Te Pati Māori.
“I do think this is not a political issue. It’s something that everyone can resonate with no matter the side of the political spectrum you’re on.”
McClure said the longer this legislative loophole was allowed to stay open, the worse the problem would get, given the technology was getting better by the day.
Which is why, when speaking in the House, she made a plea to all MPs.
“This is no longer limited to celebrities, or politicians – this could be your child, this could be your colleague, this could be your friend or anyone within your whanau.”
Jason Walls is Newstalk ZB’s political editor and has years of experience in radio and print, including in the parliamentary press gallery for the NZ Herald and Interest.co.nz. He is also the chairman of the press gallery.
