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Deepfake Technology

Published on: June 2025

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-155129

Deepfake Technology

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (18:06:17):

Every day we hear new stories of women across our State and our country affected by the scourge of sexually explicit deepfakes attacking them and weaponising technology against their lives. I rise today on behalf of the many Australians, particularly women, students and educators who are being harmed by the growing and deeply concerning misuse of deepfake technology.

Deepfakes are images, audio recordings or videos created using artificial intelligence [AI] to imitate real people doing or saying things they never did. What was once the stuff of science fiction, for people as old as I am, is now a daily digital threat. Anyone with a smartphone can access AI tools capable of generating fake content in minutes, and the results can be traumatising. While the technology has legitimate uses, and we have spoken today in this House about how we can harness it for the betterment of our State, its misuse is widespread, deeply personal and highly damaging.

One of the most disturbing trends we are now seeing across New South Wales and Australia is the targeting of students, teachers and even public servants in schools and online spaces. In several New South Wales secondary schools, students have been caught using AI apps to generate and sell sexualised deepfake images of their peers. In some cases, they have uploaded photos of classmates taken from Instagram or Snapchat and used apps that allow users to strip clothing or swap faces into pornographic content. The fake images are then shared in group chats or, worse, sold to other students. They are not isolated incidents. We have seen it happening not just in New South Wales but also in Victoria and South Australia. Schools have reported students creating deepfakes of their teachers—some for mockery, others with sexually explicit or defamatory intent.

These videos are sometimes shared among students or uploaded to anonymous social media accounts. Teachers have been reduced to punchlines or, worse, victims of serious image-based abuse. But it is not limited to students and teachers. Public servants, particularly those who work with young people have also been targeted, their images pulled from public profiles and manipulated using AI into inappropriate or humiliating content. These attacks erode trust and create fear in public-facing roles.

I reference two incredibly brave women who have spoken about their experiences in recent months. Tiffany Salmond, a respected NRL sideline reporter, was recently the victim of a disturbing deepfake attack. The intent was not entertainment; it was humiliation. A bikini photo she posted on social media was manipulated into a fake explicit video, designed to humiliate and degrade her. She called the experience "surreal" and "shocking," and has bravely spoken out, calling for stronger laws. As she said, "If deepfakes were purely about attraction, we would see women making them about men, but we don't." That is because it is not about attraction; it is about power. NRLW player for the Gold Coast Titans and New South Wales player Jaime Chapman was also targeted. She found deepfakes of herself being shared online, using AI-generated sexualised images based on content that she had innocuously posted. That was not the first time it happened to her. She used her platform to speak up, calling it "damaging" and "disturbing".

Those women are speaking out but many others, particularly across our schools, remain silent out of fear or shame. Victims of school-based deepfakes are often younger girls. The damage is psychological, reputational and deeply personal. Even when fake content is removed, the emotional toll and fear of recirculation can linger. We have even seen examples where people have gone to the extent of taking their own lives because of the damage of that content. What is most alarming is how easy it now is. The apps are specifically designed for fake nude generation, and some are marketed directly to teenagers. Offenders can use anonymous accounts, encrypted apps and VPNs to hide their tracks. In many cases, schools and families only find out once the content is already widely shared.

Our laws are not keeping up. Current laws around image-based abuse do not fully account for this synthetic media. While some deepfakes may fall under defamation or harassment provisions, most exist in a grey area, particularly when created by minors or distributed in private forums. Imagine being a 15-year-old girl whose face has been pasted onto pornographic content by classmates, or a teacher reduced to a deepfake meme circulated among students, or a public servant whose professional photo is used to create fake videos for harassment. It is not just inappropriate; it is abuse and must be treated as such. We need urgent reform. Ninety-eight per cent of this content targets women in particular. It is an abuse of women across our society. It is targeted and weaponised, and we need action for New South Wales.