Police investigate reports explicit deepfakes mad of Sydney schoolgirls

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New South Wales police are investigating claims students at a Sydney high school have circulated digitally altered explicit images of female students. The ABC understands a number of parents went to police claiming the school had failed to act on complaints.

Transcript

00:00Well, police are investigating the reports. It's quite a disturbing situation that explicit

00:08images which depicted female students were sent around, they were generated by AI, they

00:15were digitally altered by AI, and they were sent around from students of a high school

00:20in Northern Sydney. Now, the ABC has been told that parents became aware of this after

00:27a male student who received one of the images reported this to their school. The ABC also

00:33understands that a number of families then took their concerns to New South Wales Police.

00:38They met with officers at the Eastwood Police Station last night, raising these concerns

00:44that they had. We know now that police have confirmed they are investigating this situation.

00:50They say that officers from the Riot Police Area Command have commenced an investigation.

00:55And we've also received confirmation from the New South Wales Department of Education,

01:00and they've given us a statement that says deepfakes present significant risks to the wellbeing

01:05and privacy of students. The school is working closely with police on this matter. If any

01:11student is found to have engaged in this behaviour, the school will be taking strong disciplinary

01:16action. We also heard from the Acting Education Minister in New South Wales, Courtney Hussos,

01:22who says that the government is aware of this situation.

01:26So these are deeply concerning reports that I have been briefed on. I understand that police

01:32are investigating this matter, as is appropriate. This is something that we will be discussing

01:38at the Education Minister's meeting on Friday, when we come together from around the country,

01:44because this isn't just a problem that we're facing in New South Wales. This is nationwide.

01:51And Pablo, what's the New South Wales government had to say about addressing this issue more broadly?

01:56Yeah, just last month, the Minns government passed legislation which essentially outlaws deepfake

02:02pornography and the use of AI to create images depicting real people without the consent of that person.

02:10So the changes to the State Criminal Act make that illegal. And there are penalties that can reach,

02:17that can be punishable by up to three years in jail. The government says it is designed to ensure

02:24that these laws keep up with emerging technologies and also to try and stamp out some of these tools of

02:29exploitation and the abuse that we are seeing online. We heard a little bit earlier from

02:34the New South Wales Attorney General, Michael Daly.

02:39We've just introduced the most comprehensive Australia-first deepfake porn laws in New South Wales.

02:48Police are undergoing training on that. Those laws will commence shortly. It means that if you create

02:53a deepfake image of a person on your phone, you can go to jail. So I don't know the instances of

03:01that scenario, but I've made the point that parents and teachers need to educate kids in their care.

03:09Joe, obviously this is still very much under investigation, but when it comes to these sorts of

03:15issues, it could also fall under Commonwealth law. The Commonwealth law actually covers the criminal code

03:21in all forms of artificial child abuse material. And that has also been amended just last year to include

03:29AI-generated content, Joe.

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