Sharing deepfake intimate images to be criminalised in England and Wales | Online abuse

Sharing deepfake intimate images is to be criminalised in England and Wales. Amendments to the online safety bill will make it illegal to share explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent.

The Ministry of Justice said the use of deepfakes had been increasing in recent years, with a website that virtually strips women naked receiving 38m hits in the first eight months of 2021.

The new law will also remove a requirement under existing revenge porn laws to prove that perpetrators shared sexual images or films in order to cause distress, making it easier to charge and convict them.

The lord chancellor, Alex Chalk KC, said: “We are cracking down on abusers who share or manipulate intimate photos in order to hound or humiliate women and girls. Our changes will give police and prosecutors the powers they need to bring these cowards to justice, safeguarding women and girls from such vile abuse.”

For revenge porn and deepfakes, the maximum sentence will be two years where the perpetrator intended to cause distress, alarm or humiliation or obtain sexual gratification. If that intent is not proved, the maximum jail term will be six months.

Offenders found guilty of sharing images for sexual gratification could be placed on the sex offender register.

The reforms follow campaigning by the reality TV personality Georgia Harrison, who was a victim of revenge porn by her ex-boyfriend, and the Conservative MP Maria Miller, as well as recommendations from the Law Commission.

Harrison said: “The reforms … are going to go down in history as a turning point for generations to come and will bring peace of mind to so many victims who have reached out to me whilst also giving future victim’s the justice they deserve.”

The government is also creating a specific offence of threatening to share intimate images. Research shows that one in seven women and one in nine men aged between 18 and 34 have received threats that intimate images of them will be shared.

More than 28,000 reports of disclosing private sexual images without consent were recorded by police between April 2015 and December 2021. Ruth Davison, chief executive of the charity Refuge, said conviction rates for intimate image abuse were “woefully low” and that the amendments would make it easier to prosecute perpetrators, ensuring justice and better protection for survivors.