A member's bill seeking to criminalise non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfakes has passed its first reading at Parliament.
The Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill would amend the Crimes Act and Harmful Digital Communications Act by expanding the definition of 'intimate visual recording' to include images created, synthesised, or altered to show a person's likeness in intimate contexts without their consent.
The bill, put forward by ACT MP Laura McClure, was drawn from the ballot in October last year.
Debate on the bill began on the evening of April 29, but because of Member's Day conventions, it was a long wait for the debate to resume this afternoon.
Speaking in April, McClure said there was a grey area in the law, and victims or their families had found the laws were not up to scratch.
"Deepfaking somebody into explicit material is one of the worst and most horrible things that you can actually do. We're not talking about a little bit of fun."
McClure said the bill would not expand into areas like satire or art, or legitimate uses of AI technology.
Instead, it would target material purporting to depict a real, identifiable person, in genuine intimate circumstances.
"It is fabrication, but the harm is no less real. The image is presented to the world as though it were that person, and the victim is identified, humiliated, and exploited just the same."
The bill passed with unanimous support across the House.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said National welcomed the legislation, particularly in the context of other laws, such as stalking legislation which comes into effect next week.
"We have zero tolerance for this kind of harassment of individuals, particularly women, who are clearly far more likely to be the victims of this sort of, what will become, a crime. And so we want to send a clear message about that."
Labour MP Camilla Belich said case for the legislation became stronger as the technology became more sophisticated and widespread.
Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke said the world had underestimated how fast the internet was moving, and to create legislation that moved with the evolving times was important.
New Zealand First's David Wilson said an independent national regulator for online safety, which had come out of the inquiry into the harm young New Zealanders experienced online, would be vital.
"I am a father, and this kind of activity is abhorrent. It makes my blood boil. These people are stealing and expropriating people's identities. The full force of the law should be visited upon them."
Speaking at the end of the debate, McClure said the idea for the bill came after she was approached by two young women who had been the victims of deepfaking.
Since then, she had been "inundated" with emails from other people, mostly women, who had also been deepfaked.
"I do think that some of the young guys, when they are deepfaking somebody else in their class, they probably think it's a bit of a laugh. But it's actually really serious.
"And I want to say to them that it's so serious, that every single party in this Parliament says that it should be illegal."
The bill will now go to the Social Services Committee for consideration and submissions.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
