In a rare twist, the victim of widespread humiliation orchestrated by a man she once rejected in high school was able to see him charged and prosecuted. But with AI on the rise, such cases are multiplying and sometimes the victims are school children. So why are deepfake porn prosecutions so unusual? Gill Higgins reports.
A victim of deepfake porn, who was subjected to damage and humiliation before friends, family, ex partners and prospective employees, tracked down the young man who targeted her and took him to court. He pleaded guilty in what’s believed to be New Zealand’s first prosecution of this kind.
The ordeal for Chloe (not her real name) began while at university. One day, as she opened her laptop, a friend request popped up on the gaming chat site Discord. Nothing unusual – except the request came from an account that had her own name, and a profile picture of herself, naked. “It shocked me,” she says, “because that wasn't really me”.
Family photos used as AI porn: Watch this story on TVNZ+.
That was just the beginning. Chloe soon discovered that numerous photos had been taken from her social media accounts and manipulated with AI tools into pornographic pictures.
The images depicted Chloe with her family. Chloe with her friends. Chloe sitting on her Dad’s knee. “To even paint my dad in that kind of image is just disgusting," she says.
In some of the images, Chloe is just a young teen. In all of them, she’s completely, and convincingly, naked while everyone else remains fully clothed.
She felt her innocent photos had been not just stolen but weaponised, twisted to hurt and embarrass her. She discovered they’d been sent to an ex-boyfriend, to friends, to friends’ parents. And uploaded to a porn site. The images on that site were attached to her real name. “I lost an opportunity in my career because when my name was searched, they came up, the photos came up”.
Chloe’s social media accounts were soon flooded with messages. Some wanted to connect, others asked for more photos. One offered her a role in a porn movie, for “good money”. She was horrified to see some of the images had been downloaded thousands of times.
It was hard to comprehend that strangers – thousands of them – were seeing her that way and knew her name. Chloe, who says she's usually level-headed and optimistic, became consumed by anxiety. “There've been times where I haven't been able to leave the house, not even my bed. It was so hard to breathe and to just kind of grasp what was happening.”.
Eventually, she turned to her parents. “I didn’t tell them right away because I was scared of what they’d think, and then I was like ‘oh, I need help. This isn't something I can handle on my own’.”
Family photos used as AI porn: Watch this story on TVNZ+.
Dad's digital detective work
Chloe’s Dad, who works in IT, was furious and determined to use his expertise to track down the person responsible. After some digital detective work, he managed to interact with an account that had been sharing the photos. He sent the account holder a link to a fake website he’d built, supposedly offering photos of others.
When the person tried to access the website, he entered his mobile number in order to receive a password.
Chloe checked to see if the number matched any contacts in her social media accounts. It belonged to someone she’d known at school. A person who’d once been romantically interested in her. The feelings hadn’t been mutual.
Motivated by high-school rejection: a key confession
Chloe plucked up the courage to call her former school acquaintance. He hung up. She tried again, asking if he’d shared the photos because he felt rejected by her. He admitted he had.
Armed with that confession, Chloe and her father went to the police. They didn’t know if the case would go anywhere as, until now, no one has ever been successfully prosecuted in New Zealand for this type of offence. Three other girls also made complaints against the offender.
But experts have long warned that New Zealand’s laws aren’t equipped for this new reality. Under current rules, police can only prosecute if they can prove intent to cause harm, which is notoriously hard to do.
In this sense, Chloe’s case was different: she had a confession.
Victim exposed, offender protected
She wants to speak out to raise awareness of the damage these crimes cause – and is frustrated the offender’s identity is protected. “It feels like I'm being silenced, and he's allowed to continue to do what he wants with no one knowing."
Her dad shares her frustration. “She didn't give consent. Yet, this guy isn’t named for what he did. And I think that's very wrong."
The porn site folder containing photos of Chloe has been removed, but she knows the pictures have been downloaded thousands of times, meaning they’re still out there.
She wants justice. But she has to wait until next year. Although the offender pleaded guilty late last month, his sentencing won’t take place until February. He faces a maximum of two years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
A move for legal change
Act MP Laura McClure says she’s relieved to see a prosecution finally go ahead but believes victims need better legal protection. In some countries, the sharing of explicit deepfake images is treated as a crime, whether or not there’s proof of intent to cause harm.
To this end, McClure has put a member’s bill into the ballot to amend the Crimes Act 1961 and the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 expanding the definition of “intimate visual recording” to include images manipulated by AI without consent.
As Act’s education spokesperson, she says she’s aware of growing concern from schools. Principals and parents report a rise in deepfake incidents, with technology becoming both easier to use and harder to detect.
McClure adds that some young people have attempted suicide in response to being targeted. “I've heard that from some victims.”
Chloe is worried for others too. “I have been going to see a therapist. Because it's not something you can kind of just move on from. It would be devastating to be alone to try and work through this.”
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