Latest news with #porn
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Penny Mordaunt reveals she is a victim of 'humiliating and violent' AI-generated deepfake porn - and says she is not the only politician whose face has been used
Penny Mordaunt has revealed that she has been the victim of 'deliberately humiliating and violent' deepfake porn. The former Leader of the House of Commons made the candid confession in an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on Tuesday. She told the BBC Newsnight interviewer that the perpetrators should consider the consequence of their actions and called for tighter controls on social media. The former MP for Portsmouth North also revealed that upsetting instances of abuse such as deepfake porn are a regular occurance. She told the BBC programme: 'Well, not a week has gone by in my parliamentary career when something of this nature hasn't happened.' Non-consensual deepfake pornography is the production of an image using artificial intelligence. The creator combines a photograph and uses AI to remove clothes or create a fake nude photo in the likeness of a real person. Ms Mordaunt explained she had first learned that she had been a victim of a deepfake image following an investigation by Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman who uncovered 250 famous individuals whose likeness had been stolen. She added: 'My face had been used, AI porn generated, deepfake porn. It happened to a number of parliamentarians.' Other victims included Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, former education secretary, Gillian Keegan, and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Priti Patel. Following her 'humiliating' experience, the former MP has called for tighter controls on social media and online platforms and raised concerns around access by children to deepfake pornogpraphy. 'I would ask the people behind this, don't they realize the consequences in the real world when they do something like that,' she said, 'because although I haven't seen this myself, it was deliberately humiliating and violent and that plays across into the real world. 'It plays across in to people taking actual real world actions against ourselves and that has happened to me, it's happened to a lot of my colleagues. She added: 'The worry for me is actually more with children and we wouldn't want people to see these things on the walk to school. 'If they did, they'd be in therapy. But we have seemed to be perfectly happy for them to see it online. And so I'm with the Australians on this. We need to go much further, and we need to recognize the real harm this is doing to young people.' Victoria Derbyshire clarified that Ms Mordaunt was referring to the social media ban for under-16s in Australia to which the former Minister for Women and Equalities explained that she wanted the government to do more in tackling the harmful act. Ms Mordaunt even called on X owner Elon Musk to step in and improve age verifications to protect children. She said: 'I would ban certain social media platforms. And I think the government needs to have some courage here in addressing these issues with people like Elon Musk. 'That man is taking the human race to Mars. I'm sure he can figure out age verification and what needs to follow from that.' She ex-parliamentarian added that despite the more difficult sides of being in the public eye, she found that her role in Parliament was still generally positive. The creation of deepfake porn is illegal in the UK following a new Online Safety Act which was brought in last year. It includes the sharing or threatening to share intimate photos of someone without their permission and this includes deepfake images.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Elon Musk is told to block children from viewing porn on X or face huge fine - after launch of AI chatbot 'girlfriend' to users as young as 12
Elon Musk has been instructed to prevent children from looking at porn on his social media site X or face hefty fines under a new crackdown introduced this week. UK media watchdog Ofcom is bringing in rules from Friday insisting that all firms hosting pornography online should have robust and 'highly effective' age checks. These are aimed at stopping anyone aged under 18 from accessing such content. Billionaire Musk, 54, the world's richest man, has been in charge of X - previously named Twitter - since 2022. He has faced criticism in recent weeks after one of the artificial intelligence brands he owns, xAI, launched a chatbot 'girlfriend' available to users as young as 12. Internet safety experts have warned it could be used to 'manipulate, mislead, and groom children'. Fines for non-compliance with the new Ofcom regulations could be up to £18million or 10 per cent of the platform's qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater - with estimates suggesting as much as £200million for £2billion-revenue X. The crackdown is part of the Online Safety Act 2023 – a set of laws that protects children and adults online. Other threatened punishments include barring a social media company from operating in the UK. X, which officially has a 13-plus age limit for users, is said to be under scrutiny due to the volume of pornographic material shared on the site, the Telegraph reports. The Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has previously warned many youngsters are more likely to see pornography on X than on dedicated adult sites. A study suggested 41 per cent of 16-to-21-year-olds told of viewing pornography on Twitter, against 37 per cent for specialist adult sites - followed by 33 per cent doing so on Instagram, 32 per cent on Snapchat and 30 per cent on search engines. The new age restriction rules say internet firms should ensure users adults submit ID or even have their face scanned, depending on what sites they access. Recommended measures include open banking, photo IDs, facial age estimation software and checks by credit card or mobile phone operators. And industry sources have highlighted three options for Mr Musk's X ahead of the new system. The website could bar anyone aged below 18 from signing up, remove all pornographic content from the site or else introduce bespoke age checks for accounts or areas of the platform where such material is shared. A government insider was quoted as saying: 'If X or any other company that hosts pornography has not introduced highly effective age assurance by this Friday deadline, Ofcom has been clear that they will face enforcement action.' When contacted by MailOnline, an Ofcom spokesperson said: 'Society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. 'By Friday, all sites and apps that allow pornography – whether they're dedicated adult sites or social media apps – must use highly effective age checks to protect children from online material that's not appropriate for them. 'If companies fail to act, they should expect to face enforcement.' MailOnline has contacted X and xAI for comment. There has been criticism in recent days of xAI's new chatbot girlfriend named Ani, described a fully fledged, blonde-haired AI companion with a gothic, anime-style appearance. She has been programmed to act as a 22-year-old and engage at times in flirty banter with the user. Users have reported that the chat bot has an NSFW mode - 'not safe for work' - once Ani has reached 'level three' in its interaction, including the additional option of appearing dressed in slinky lingerie. The character is said a seductive computer-generated voice that pauses and laughs between phrases and regularly initiates flirtatious conversation. Ani was made available to use within the Grok app, which is listed on the App store and can be downloaded by anyone aged 12 and over. Those who have interacted with Ani since it launched earlier last week report Ani describes itself as 'your crazy in-love girlfriend who's gonna make your heart skip'. Ofcom said: 'We are aware of the increasing and fast-developing risk AI poses in the online space, especially to children, and we are working to ensure platforms put appropriate safeguards in place to mitigate these risks.' Matthew Sowemimo, associate head of policy for child safety online at the NSPCC children's charity, said: 'We are really concerned how this technology is being used to produce disturbing content that can manipulate, mislead, and groom children. 'And through our own research and contacts to Childline, we hear how harmful chatbots can be – sometimes giving children false medical advice or steering them towards eating disorders or self-harm. 'It is worrying app stores hosting services like Grok are failing to uphold minimum age limits, and they need to be under greater scrutiny so children are not continually exposed to harm in these spaces.' In its terms of service, Grok advised that the minimum age to use the tool is actually 13, while young people under 18 should receive permission from a parent before using the app. Ofcom has told of 13 adult websites which were 'happy to be named at this stage' and 'represent a broad range of pornography services accessed in the UK' The new Ofcom-regulated age checks being introduced this Friday are also expected of fellow online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. And various specialist pornography providers have gone public with how they plan to sign up to the new stipulations. Those announcing last month they would comply by this Friday's deadline were PornHub, the most-visited pornographic service in the UK, BoyfriendTV, Cam4, FrolicMe, inxxx, Jerkmate, LiveHDCams, MyDirtyHobby, RedTube, Streamate, Stripchat, Tube8 and YouPorn. Ofcom said these 13 sites were 'happy to be named at this stage' and 'represent a broad range of pornography services accessed in the UK'. Children as young as EIGHT are finding adult content online New research from Ofcom reveals the extent to which children are accessing porn online, and underlines the need for new measures to protect them. It found that eight per cent of children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month – including around 3 per cent of 8–9-year-olds – the youngest children in the study. Ofcom's research tracked the use of websites and apps by 8–14-year-olds across smartphones, tablets and computers over a month. Boys aged 13-14 (19 per cent) were mostly likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (11 per cent). With older teenagers also likely accessing pornography, the total number of under-18s exposed to adult content will be higher still.
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
Pornhub Might Return to Some States After SCOTUS Loss: Report
Porn sites were dealt a decisive blow last month when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Texas law that requires websites with pornographic material to verify all users are 18 or older. Pornhub, the world's most popular porn platform, has been blocking its material from Texas in protest. But it sounds like Pornhub's parent company might be considering a move to conduct age verifications after all, according to a new report from Bloomberg Law. The suggestion that Pornhub could just do age verification came on Thursday during a federal court hearing over a dispute on whether Pornhub's parent company Aylo Global should pay fines over initially not conducting age checks in 2023. A lawyer for the company, Scott Cole of Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP, told the judge, 'Everyone's reevaluating the new landscape after the Supreme Court opinion.' Pornhub started blocking all users from Texas in March 2024 rather than face further fines for non-compliance, though visitors can still use a VPN to get around the block. Anyone trying to visit Pornhub right now is met with a long message that starts with, 'As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website.' The porn sites, which formed a group called the Free Speech Coalition, argued against age verification laws on First Amendment grounds and said the burden to verify ages opened up users to all kinds of hacking and unnecessary exposure for constitutionally protected speech. Requiring a credit card or driver's license for age verification does open up a new avenue for hackers to unmask folks for behavior they may be embarrassed about. The case, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton (Ken Paxton is the Attorney General of Texas), was decided 6-3 along ideological lines. 'History, tradition, and precedent recognize that States have two distinct powers to address obscenity: They may proscribe outright speech that is obscene to the public at large, and they may prevent children from accessing speech that is obscene to children,' conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion. 'In addition to their general interest in protecting the public at large, States have a specific interest in protecting children from sexually explicit speech,' Thomas continued. But the liberals on the court disagreed with the reasoning behind a requirement for age verification, noting that, historically, any protections for children need to be done in the least restrictive way in order to allow adults to access material they're entitled to see. The liberal justice who wrote the dissent, Elena Kagan, argued that 'speech that is obscene for minors is often not so for adults.' She asked, 'Is the law the least restrictive means of achieving a compelling state interest?' while insisting that the conservative opinion was 'unfaithful to the law.' At least 19 states currently have laws on the books requiring user age verification for porn sites, and if Pornhub decides to just implement a way to do that, it seems likely that other states will follow. Perhaps even Democratic-leaning states will pass laws, since almost all of the states that currently have age verification requirements are controlled by Republicans. Pornhub didn't immediately respond to questions emailed Friday morning. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.
CTV News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Hong Kong opens probe into AI-generated porn scandal at university
Hong Kong's privacy watchdog said Tuesday it has launched a criminal investigation into an AI-generated porn scandal at the city's oldest university, after a student was accused of creating lewd images of his female classmates and teachers. Three people alleged over the weekend that a University of Hong Kong (HKU) law student fabricated pornographic images of at least 20 women using artificial intelligence, in what is the first high-profile case of its kind in the Chinese financial hub. The university sparked outrage over a perceived lenient punishment after it said Saturday it had only sent a warning letter to the student and demanded he apologise. But Hong Kong's Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data said Tuesday that disclosing someone else's personal data without consent, and with an intent to cause harm, could be an offence. The watchdog 'has begun a criminal investigation into the incident and has no further comment at this stage', it said, without mentioning the student. The accusers said in a statement Saturday that Hong Kong law only criminalises the distribution of 'intimate images', including those created with AI, but not the generation of them. There is no allegation so far that the student spread the deepfake images, and so 'victims are unable to seek punishment... through Hong Kong's criminal justice system', they wrote. The accusers said a friend discovered the images on the student's laptop. Experts warn the alleged use of AI in the scandal may be the tip of a 'very large iceberg' surrounding non-consensual imagery. 'The HKU case shows clearly that anyone could be a perpetrator, no space is 100 percent safe,' Annie Chan, a former associate professor at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, told AFP. Women's rights advocates said Hong Kong was 'lagging behind' in terms of legal protections. 'Some people who seek our help feel wronged, because they never took those photos,' said Doris Chong, executive director at the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, referring to cases at the group's crisis centre. 'The AI generations are so life-like that their circulation would be very upsetting.' Asked about the case at a Tuesday press briefing, Hong Kong leader John Lee said most of the city's laws 'are applicable to activities on the internet'. HKU said on Saturday it will review the case and take further action if appropriate.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Is AI porn the next horizon in self-pleasure — and is it ethical?
The AI revolution is well and truly upon us. As we grapple with the ramifications of generative AI in our professional and personal worlds, it's worth remembering that its impact will be felt in even the most intimate corners of our lives — including our private browsers. Whether you're aware of it or not, AI is coming for the porn industry. Already, there are a number of new genres emerging which make use of generative AI, such as hyper porn, a genre of erotic imagery which stretches the limits of sexuality and human anatomy to hyperbolic new heights (think: a Barbie-esque woman with three giant breasts, instead of two). There are also various iterations of 'gone wild' porn, a subdivision of porn which sees users attempt to 'trick' safe-for-work image generation models like Dall-E into depicting erotic scenes — and enjoying the work-arounds and euphemisms which these tools may use to avoid depicting explicit sex. But it's unlikely AI will wipe out the existence of IRL porn performers. AI porn stretches the fantasy innate within the porn and erotic content industries – materialising flawless avatars tailored to an individual's unique desires out of, seemingly, thin air. For some, this will be a turn-on but for others, it will lack the sweat and grit that makes IRL sex so appealing. 'I think there will be a splitting between people jumping head first into unreality and the people who actually want an antidote to it. We're already seeing such a huge fracturing of reality in our everyday lives,' says Vex Ashley, the porn performer, director, producer and one half of creative pornography project Four Chambers. SEE ALSO: Majority of Gen Z would marry an AI, survey says Ultimately, she insists, there will be a demographic that still hungers for a semblance of real human interaction. 'We'll absolutely see something like a build-your-own-AI custom pornstar who is also your digital girlfriend but I think — despite what people say — for many, sex is an experience they want to be grounded in some kind of authenticity,' Ashley adds. 'Person to person, there's a reason why you want to talk to your favourite pornstar on OnlyFans. I think we'll see a pushback, a rise of amateur, homemade content and in-person sexual events, experiences — something tactile.' While the industry is beginning to grapple with generative AI, the consumer point of view is coming into focus and, for some, it could provoke difficulties – especially for those already struggling with excessive porn use. While sex and relationships therapists tend to be sceptical about the topic of 'porn addiction' — it doesn't appear in diagnostic manuals and it is instead considered to be a form of compulsive sexual behaviour — a whole porn subculture exists around 'gooning': an extreme evolution of orgasm denial which sees individuals, generally cis men, enter into a trance-like state after edging for hours, locked into masturbation sessions with the aid of online porn. Speaking to an anonymous gooner, he shares his view of how AI may impact chronic porn users. SEE ALSO: What is gooning? 'AI porn kind of offers this new version of gooning. What is extremely sexy is typing in every crass thought that you have and immediately seeing it generated as an image.' He describes accessing NSFW generative AI models like Uber Realistic Porn Merge and then downloading different LoRAs (Low-Rank Adaptation — a type of add-on which allows you to quickly fine-tune an AI model) for various angles and scenarios within porn, such as 'reverse anal' or 'deep-throat side view'. 'You try them out and you're like, 'Oh, this is super hot…but I want the characters to be holding hands with a priest!'' From there, the hunger for more and more extreme fantasies can quickly escalate. 'It's bizarre, you tend to end up in this cycle of typing in a scenario, waiting five seconds until it comes up and, from there, chasing different scenarios — like having sex in the subway — that you can't do in real life.' The possibilities of AI to turn an individual's most niche fantasies into tangible images, all at the click of a button, are hugely compelling but, as my interviewee explains, it's also potentially troubling for individuals who may struggle with compulsive porn use. 'Live generation goon sessions will definitely become more popular,' he says. 'I've seen people in Reddit threads who are like, 'I can't stop gooning over AI porn'. I agree — I tasted it and it was fucking addictive.' It's worth noting here that, for anyone who is concerned about their porn consumption (of AI content, or otherwise), you might want to ask yourself questions about whether you want to stop but can't, or if there is a pattern of escalation. Ultimately, if you feel like your porn consumption is spiralling, it's worth reaching out to a therapist specialised in the field of compulsive sexual behaviour or a charity such as Relate, which can offer support around so-called 'porn addiction' (psychotherapists say there is no clinical evidence to support the diagnosis of 'porn addiction'). But as well as holding potential concerns for porn viewers, the rise of AI porn could have a serious knock-on effect for individuals currently working in the porn industry as actors or performers. After all, the obvious appeal of AI is the ability to see images and short-form video that explore hyper-unrealistic fantasies that aren't just impossible in 'real life' but for humans at all (like realistic vampire porn, or convincing erotic alien abduction scenes). For flesh-and-blood individuals working in the erotic industries, the increasing availability of AI — and potential impact on demand for porn featuring real humans — is already providing pause. 'I think it would be naive to say that we won't see huge shifts across all industries, porn and sex have always been right at the forefront of technological advancement,' says Ashley. As with other industries and forms of labour, Ashley explains that there will inevitably be concerns around workers' rights as consumers begin to explore AI-generated imagery. 'We're unfortunately going to see a space long dominated by the labour, skill and ingenuity of women and queer people be flooded with men finally able to achieve the ability to create the image of a person they want to fuck, without needing the person themself,' Ashley explains. While some porn performers are using AI themselves, such as for sexy chatbots, the lack of employment law protections for workers in the industry means they will be especially vulnerable to consumer changes. 'It's going to be a labour rights issue for sex workers who are already so legislatively unprotected compared to other performers in mainstream media,' says Ashley. In addition to these labour rights concerns, AI can be used to create non-consensual explicit deepfakes, prompting serious questions around consumer responsibility. For those who are unfamiliar, non-consensual explicit deepfakes typically consist of an individual's face and likeness being superimposed onto a naked body or an erotic scenario without their knowledge, then distributed online. It goes without saying that this type of material is a major violation of an individual's right to autonomy, privacy, and dignity. As a result, the creation of these images is already due to become illegal in England and Wales, with legislation recently signed to crack down on deepfakes in the U.S. However, as Professor Clare McGlynn, an expert in the legal regulation of pornography, sexual violence, and online abuse explains, the consumption of these images remains unregulated — meaning that they can be viewed without repercussions. 'Viewing sexually explicit deepfakes is not an offence. It is, though, deeply unethical. Survivors experience this abuse as a violation of their bodily and sexual integrity,' she explains. 'Each viewing is a new act of sexual violence, a breach of their consent. That so many are viewing this material should be deeply worrying, as it suggests a large market for non-consensual material.' Thankfully, efforts are being made to bring distributors of sexually explicit deepfakes to account — cutting consumers off from the source. This year, in fact, the figure behind one of the world's best-known non-consensual explicit deepfake sites was identified, and the site in question, MrDeepfakes, shut down. However, more should be done to prevent this kind of abuse from happening, rather than taking down the material once it has already been made and distributed, as Madelaine Thomas, an adult content creator and the founder of Image Angel, a software company which creates invisible watermarks to prevent non-consensual image sharing, attests. 'Social media platforms don't have the infrastructure they need to be able to protect the people on those platforms from content that isn't authentic or isn't captured in the correct way,' Thomas explains. The best-known cases of non-consensual explicit deepfakes involve well-known celebrities, but the scale of the harm is wider than many are aware. The ability to pirate the likeness or body of any individual who has posted photos on the internet has led to an increasing number of victims speaking out about the abuse they have faced over the past few years. In future, it's likely that more and more individuals will sadly be impacted by these crimes, including those in the adult entertainment industry, a demographic who are often victim-blamed when they come forward about instances of sexual abuse. But are there solutions? In the background, work is definitely underway. For example, Image Angel was founded after Thomas's intimate images were distributed without her consent, leading to a passion to prevent this kind of abuse in future — one that is reflected in her company's mission. 'Image Angel adds an invisible forensic watermark to any content that is received on a platform that has our tech installed. For example, if a content creator is sending out multiple nude or suggestive images, they can make sure that whoever receives them will be traceable if they share them,' she explains. While Thomas is keen to emphasise the damage of non-consensual explicit deepfake abuse, she also emphasises that the current AI model for all explicit content is based on the non-consensual extraction of erotic images. 'I work with the Digital Intimacy Coalition, and for years we have been campaigning to get people to understand that generated deepfakes do not solely put one person at the center of the harm,' she explains. 'The customer is none the wiser, but these AI tools are almost like a black hole that we are just seeing the very surface of. There are thousands of people, mostly women, whose images have been fed into these multi-language models. The tools might spit out an image of one person, but that image is comprised of thousands of sex workers' data.' Ultimately, an increased awareness around the potential harms of AI porn may encourage some viewers from taking a more conscientious approach. But we can't just rely on consumers to do the right thing – there needs to be an infrastructure to protect individuals from having their image stolen and misappropriated. For her part, Thomas expects to see more porn and erotic imagery behind the paywall, with in-built technology to prevent content from being fed into AI models. She also expects that AI-poisoning tools, like Nightshade, may well augment in popularity as a way to prevent images and videos from being fed into AI models. Whatever the future holds, it will be a rocky journey for the adult entertainment industry and wider society as we grapple with these nefarious uses of new technology – making it all the more important to listen to porn and adult content creators, fight for survivors of image-based sexual abuse, and campaign for further AI regulation.
