Ofcom, the UK’s internet safety regulator, has issued a new regulatory draft under the Online Safety Act (OSA) to protect women and girls from AI deepfake porn generator tools used without their consent.
The online safety regulation against deepfake AI generated porn was approved by Parliament in September 2023, but along the way faced obstacles, especially criticism over its effectiveness in holding platforms accountable, despite significant penalties for non-compliance.
Although the OSA is set for future enforcement, full implementation will take time. Ofcom’s new code on women’s safety won’t be active until 2027 or later, but provisions of illegal content and child protection will start being enforced next month.
Deepfake AI Porn Generator Risks
The guidance draft addresses major risks created by AI generated deepfake porn, such as online misogyny, harassment, domestic abuse and intimate image abuse.
According to Jessica Smith, Ofcom’s principal, the company urges platforms to adopt a “safety by design” approach, based on including safe measurements into the product development for a better user experience.
“What we’re really asking for is just a sort of step change in how the design processes work,” Smith told TechCrunch.
The increase in AI generated deepfakes porn is an example of the poor measures taken for harm prevention. Now Ofcom is calling on platforms to use best security procedures including:
- Eliminating geolocation data by default to reduce stalking and privacy risks.
- Conducting “abusability” testing to identify potential harms.
- Strengthening account security to prevent abuse.
- Adding user prompts to discourage abusive content.
- Making simple reporting mechanisms available for users to flag as harmful behaviors.
Ofcom will use its transparency powers to expose and shame those platforms that fail to meet safety standards by allowing the spread of deepfake porn generator content. UK-based platforms must comply with the OSA’s requirements by excluding illicit content from their pages and protecting women’s and girl’s safety.
“Once we finalize the guidance, we will produce a [market] report … about who is using the guidance, who is following what steps, what kind of outcomes they’re achieving for their users who are women and girls and really shine a light on what protections are in place on different platforms so that users can make informed choices about where they spend their time online,” Smith mentioned.
Ofcom’s new guidance is a much needed, welcomed, step toward acquiring improved online safety for women and girls, by promoting “safety by design” solutions, the regulator wants to prevent online abuse, particularly as AI technology and deepfakes continue to grow.
Final Thoughts
Despite the fact that eliminating deepfake porn generator content will take several years to occur, platforms are forced to follow strict rules and measures to limit the spread of this dangerous content. AI-generated content has become crucial in everyday life especially for the current evolving generation that depends highly on AI in daily tasks. Therefore, providing a safe and secure user experience is upon the most important goals Ofcom is pursuing. However, the question is, what if platforms did not succeed at decreasing the level of deepfake AI generated porn?
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