Aussies blocked from deepfake nudifying websites over child abuse material

Australians have been blocked from three of the world's most popular deepfake nudify websites after they were used to create AI-generated deepfakes of school children.

Australians have been blocked from three of the world's most popular deepfake nudify websites after they were used to create AI-generated deepfakes of school children.

Itai Tech restricted accessibility to some of its websites after the eSafety Commission threatened to take the UK-based company to court for $49.5 million over its failure to comply with mandatory codes and standards.

The company was told that their services have been used in high-profile cases of Australian school children creating deepfake explicit images of their peers.

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Australians have been blocked from three of the world's most popular deepfake nudify websites after they were used to create AI-generated deepfakes of school children.

The sites allow users to upload images of real people, including children, to undress and depict in several ways, including as a schoolgirl, in lingerie and in BDSM.

Itai Tech's websites are the most popular in the world, with the eSafety Commission estimating they received about 100,000 visits a month in Australia alone. 

"We know 'nudify' services have been used to devastating effect in Australian schools, and with this major provider blocking their use by Australians we believe it will have a tangible impact on the number of Australian school children falling victim to AI-generated child sexual exploitation," Commissioner Inman Grant said.

"We took enforcement action in September because this provider failed to put in safeguards to prevent its services being used to create child sexual exploitation material and were even marketing features like undressing 'any girl,' and with options for 'schoolgirl' image generation and features such as 'sex mode'."

Itai Tech also blocked UK users from its website after it was fined £50,000 ($101,000) earlier this month for not having age checks.

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Global AI model hosting platform Hugging Face has also changed its terms of service after some models were misused to create deepfake sexual exploitation material of real children and survivors of sexual abuse.

Following a warning from the eSafety Commission, the platform has instructed all account holders to take steps to minimise the risks associated with the models, specifically to prevent the generation of child sexual exploitation or pro-terror material.

eSafety said it was targeting the AI consumer tools, as well as the underlying models that power them and the platforms that host them.

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