Deepfake porn could soon be illegal

Revenge porn – the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of someone without their consent – was made illegal in the UK back in 2015. It was a move welcomed by campaigners and activists, and anyone found guilty of sharing revenge porn can face up to two years in jail.

Now, new technology has given rise to nonconsensual deepfake porn – where a person’s face is superimposed onto pornographic imagery – and the Law Commission of England and Wales is calling for the law to be reformed to reflect the changing landscape.

“Sharing intimate images of a person without their consent can be incredibly distressing and harmful for victims, with the experience often scarring them for life,” said Prof Penney Lewis, the law commissioner for criminal law. “Current laws on taking or sharing sexual or nude images of someone without their consent are inconsistent, based on a narrow set of motivations and do not go far enough to cover disturbing and abusive new behaviours born in the smartphone era.”

The recommendations propose addressing inconsistencies in the law: for example, while upskirting and voyeurism are offences, “downblousing”  – taking a photo of a woman’s cleavage or breasts down her top – is not. At present, it’s also not illegal to share pornographic deepfakes or “nudified” images.

The new legal framework, as set out by the commission, would criminalise anyone who intentionally takes or shares intimate images without consent. Sentences will also be tougher, with up to three years’ imprisonment for the most serious abuses, and lifetime anonymity offered to all victims of abuse.

Emily Hunt, a campaigner and adviser to the Ministry of Justice, said the reforms were essential. “Taking or sharing sexual or nude images of someone without their consent can disrupt lives and inflict lasting damage,” she said. “A change in the law is long overdue and it’s right that under these proposals, all perpetrators of these acts would face prosecution.”

Vanessa Morse, the CEO of the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation, added that the law must also be amended to crack down on content appearing on porn sites without the consent of those featured in the videos. “We know that the pornography industry cannot be trusted to self-regulate and it has facilitated and profited from this horrific practice for years,” she said.

“Crucially, pornography platforms must be made, by law, to verify the age and consent of those featured in uploads. This is the only way that nonconsensual material will be prevented from being uploaded in the first place, and it has already been adopted as a policy by Mastercard. The government has the opportunity to impose these changes on the pornography industry through the online safety bill, but it is currently choosing not to. This is a grave mistake.”