This is a joint submission from NSW Council of Civil Liberties and Scarlet Alliance on the Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024. The Bill proposes changes to the way the law deals with deepfake content, but doesn’t actually protect people’s rights.

Generative AI is changing fast. Any real response to the harm it can cause needs a whole-of-government approach, not just more criminal law. Even where new criminal laws are needed, they must work alongside the protections that already exist at federal, state and territory level, not confuse or clash with them.

Non-consensual sharing of sexual material and deepfakes is a complex problem. Relying only on criminalisation won’t stop this harm, and won’t help victim-survivors get support or access justice.

This submission argues that a proactive approach, focused on education, consent culture, and harm prevention, works better. The Bill’s focus on tougher criminal penalties ignores other, more effective ways to prevent and reduce the harm caused by deepfakes and non-consensual intimate image sharing.