header-logo header-logo

14 March 2025
Issue: 8108 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Media , Abuse , Cybercrime
printer mail-detail

NLJ this week: How deepfake tech is super-charging abuse

211165
The rise of deepfake videos, deepfake porn and unsolicited sexual images (cyberflashing) is an alarming and increasingly prevalent problem. In this week’s NLJ, Jenni Dempster KC and Maleeka Bokhari, Red Lion Chambers, look into this abuse, the harm it causes and the legal protections that exist, notably the Online Safety Act 2023.

What is the scope of existing protection, what are the defences, how tough are the sanctions, what legislative developments are underway and how will they work in practice? The problem is widespread. As the authors report, ‘an analysis of 14,678 deepfake online videos, highlighted that 96% of them were non-consensual intimate content and that 100% of examined content on the top five “deepfake” pornography websites targeted women’.

Dempster and Bokhari write: ‘This worrying trend cannot be allowed to exist in any democracy where the autonomy, dignity and voices of women are threatened because of malicious AI-generated content.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Partner joins commercial property team in Taunton office

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Londstanding London firm appoints new senior partner

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Commercial team in London welcomes technology specialist as partner

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
back-to-top-scroll