Now deepfake laws have been applied for the first time. What are they?

A South Australian man has become the first and only person in the country to be prosecuted under a new federal law aimed at combating deepfake adult pornography.

This week, a suppression order was lifted to reveal that Netherlands resident William Hamish Yeates, 19, had been charged with eight counts of creating or altering sexual material without consent – a federal offense created in 2024 to combat deepfake pornography.

He has not yet entered pleas to the charges.

While this may be the first case to be prosecuted under the new legislation, authorities and experts say the increase in the creation of sexually explicit deepfake material is concerning.

What are deepfakes?

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides everyone with the ability to create realistic and misleading content, including fake sexualized content.

A deepfake is an image or video in which a real person’s face or body has been edited using AI software to create a false representation.