An Australian teenager has pleaded guilty to creating and distributing deepfake pornography, marking a landmark moment for the country's new digital abuse laws, according to bbc.com.
William Hamish Yeates, 19, admitted to four offences in court on Wednesday. He is the first person to face charges under a new national law designed to criminalize the manipulation of sexual images.
The new legislation carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. The prosecution involves charges of creating or altering sexual material without consent, distributing it, and using a carriage service in a harassing or offensive manner.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) withdrew several other charges against Yeates following his guilty plea. The court heard that Yeates distributed images of his alleged victim across multiple X accounts without her permission.
The rise of AI-generated abuse
Experts describe deepfake pornography as the new frontier of gendered, image-based abuse and school bullying. This technology, often powered by artificial intelligence, overwhelmingly targets women and girls.
Australia's internet regulator, the eSafety Commission, has been actively fighting to ban apps that 'nudify' subjects. The agency has issued multiple warnings regarding the rising threat of AI-manipulated material.
Julie Inman Grant, the head of the eSafety Commission, provided data to parliament in 2024 highlighting the scale of the issue. She noted a massive surge in explicit deepfakes on the internet.
"There is compelling and concerning data that explicit deepfakes have increased on the internet as much as 550% year on year since 2019," Grant wrote.
She further stated that pornographic videos constitute 98% of the deepfake material currently online, and 99% of that imagery features women and girls.
Yeates did not comment as he left the courtroom. He is scheduled to return for a hearing in April.