The British government will classify a new criminal offense to punish the creation of sexual images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), whose main victims are women, the executive announced this Tuesday.
Anyone who takes intimate photos or videos without the consent of others, or who installs equipment to capture these images, in a locker room or bathroom, for example, will face up to two years in prison, the government said in a statement. .
Sharing intimate images of a person, including AI-created “deepfakes”, has been banned in the UK since 2023, but creating them is not yet a criminal offence, except in certain specific cases, such as taking a photo up a person’s skirt. women.
Alex Davies-Jones, Secretary of State for Victims, acknowledged on Sky News on Tuesday that there were “gaps in the existing law” and that it needed to be expanded and “clarified”.
“One in three British women is a victim of intimate image sharing, sometimes called ‘revenge porn’. It’s horrible and it makes women vulnerable, it intimidates them. Therefore, those who perpetrate this crime deserve to feel the full weight of the law,” said Davies-Jones.
Proliferation of AI tools
The publication of these images without the consent of their victims is increasing due to the proliferation of low-cost AI tools, including photo retouching applications on phones that allow women to be stripped naked, for example.
«Companies must also act. Platforms that have this content will be subject to stricter supervision and significant sanctions,” warned the Secretary of State for Technology, Margaret Jones.
In the United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is among at least 30 British politicians who have been targeted by a ‘deepfake’ pornographic site, according to an investigation by the television network ‘Channel 4’. published last year.
The Labor government, which came to power in July, has promised to halve violence against women and girls within ten years.
Given this promise, the coalition of British feminist organizations EVAW (“End Violence Against Women”) urged the government to establish a timetable for the introduction of these new crimes into the criminal code. “Delaying it will only put women and girls at risk,” said one of its leaders, Rebecca Hitchen.
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