Fake AI porn crackdown amid gendered violence crisis

The federal government's 'Deepfakes Bill' bans the sharing of the artificially-created pornography in an attempt to address the gender-based violence crisis.

Sharing non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material will carry a maximum penalty of six years' imprisonment, increasing to seven years if the person who shares the images also created them.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will introduce the laws to parliament this week, stating his government has "no tolerance for this sort of insidious criminal behaviour".

"Digitally created and altered sexually explicit material that is shared without consent is a damaging and deeply distressing form of abuse," he said in a statement.

"We know it overwhelmingly affects women and girls who are the target of this kind of deeply offensive and harmful behaviour ... it can inflict deep, long-lasting harm on victims."

The move was flagged after last month's National Cabinet meeting where a near $1 billion package tackling domestic abuse was delivered.

Other moves stemming from the meeting included measures to address online misogyny aimed at young people, a pilot program for age assurance technology for harmful content such as pornography and a review of the online safety act.

The government also pointed to its increased funding for the eSafety Commissioner and attempts to address harmful practices such as doxxing.

Deepfake legislation would apply to images depicting adults, with any showing minors already covered by child abuse laws.

In April, leading British feminist academic Fiona Vera-Gray told a symposium on sexual violence in Melbourne the pornography industry needed more oversight with the threat of AI looming large.

"We've got to hurry up because these things are getting away from us," she said.

"There is massive amounts of funding going into the metaverse from the porn industry and the porn industry has driven technological advances through the years."

Australian Associated Press