New laws to stop sick deepfake images of women are on the way, a minister targeted by online creeps has pledged.
Jess Phillips told The Mirror that new legislation will be brought forward as she accused the Tories of failing to prioritise violence against women and girls. The Safeguarding Minister said she understands anger over the vile trend – which has seen millions of fake explicit images created and shared of unsuspecting victims.
She said: “The Government fully intends to legislate in this session on the use of deepfakes. My feeling comes from the fact that I am a victim of this particular crime. There is deepfake technology that has been used to make pornographic images of me.
“And so I understand the violation, on a very, very personal level.” It comes after Tory peer Baroness Charlotte Owen put forward a Bill designed to outlaw these images, which she branded a “new frontier of violence against women”.
Demanding tougher laws, she told peers that one website dedicated to sharing such images gets over 13million hits a month. Another site processed over 600,000 fake pictures in just three weeks, she said, highlighting the scale of the issue. 99% of these images are of women, peers were told.
If you have been affected by deepfakes and want to share your story, please get in touch with us at mirrornews@mirror.co.uk.
In one harrowing case, the House of Lords heard last month, one victim discovered her best friend had taken innocuous pictures of her which were then used to create obscene images and videos. Baroness Owen said: “This abuse causes untold trauma, anxiety, and distress.
“All women are now forced to live under the ever present threat that anyone can own sexually explicit content of them.” But the Government did not support Baroness Owen’s Bill, instead promising to put forward legislation of its own.
Ms Phillips said she had been in touch with the Tory peer, and would work with her to bring forward tougher laws. “We want the same thing,” she said.
Ministers have set themselves the huge task of halving violence against women and girls within a decade. Ms Phillips said tackling the epidemic was not a priority for the previous Government.
In September The Mirror revealed that under the Tories just 50 Home Office staff were assigned to dealing with the epidemic, compared to 1,000 working on the now-scrapped Rwanda deportation plan. Ms Phillips said: “I have stood in front of politicians, ministers before who have told me that violence against women and girls was a priority, and I knew that wasn’t the case.
(
Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)
“And so I feel like your statistics vindicate that, it’s no surprise to me.” But she said there has been a reset under the new Government.
“What I would say is that you can feel in the Home Office now that violence against women and girls has become absolutely core and central to everything,” Ms Phillips stated. “Not just for the violence against women and girls team, I won’t succeed if I just get a team of people, it has to matter as much in policing, it has to matter as much in the immigration space, it has to matter in safeguarding.
“How we deal with it has to be across absolutely everything.” And she said police forces are onboard with the new mission.
“You get this real sense in meetings with police chiefs that they were ready and waiting for it to become a priority,” she said. “And they’re very keen to do as much as they can.”
Be the first with news from Mirror Politics
BLUESKY: Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. And follow our Mirror Politics team here – Lizzy Buchan, Jason Beattie, Kevin Maguire, Sophie Huskisson, Dave Burke, Ashley Cowburn, Mikey Smith
POLITICS WHATSAPP: Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
NEWSLETTER: Or sign up here to the Mirror’s Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox.
PODCAST: And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell, hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday.
Asked whether the goal of halving violence against women and girls is achievable she said: “The last Labour government halved domestic abuse. So we’re making that broader and we said that it is violence against women and girls.
“I was about to say we would never have committed to it if it wasn’t achievable. But I actually I’m not sure that that’s true, because committing to it is going to make us try and that’s better than where we were before.
“But yes, I think it is achievable. And already in five months of being in office, we have got off the ground domestic abuse protection orders that had dwindled for three years with nothing happening.
“We’re about to start putting specialist teams into every police force’s 999 call centre.
“We’re changing the law on spiking. We are moving as we recognise it’s a big task and that is why we are trying to do it as quickly as we possibly can.”