Australian teenager pleads guilty in landmark deepfake pornography case

An Australian teenager has pleaded guilty to creating and distributing deepfake pornography, marking the first prosecution under a new national law criminalising manipulation of sexual images.

William Hamish Yeates, 19, admitted to four offences including creating or altering sexual material without consent and distributing it across multiple social media accounts.

Yeates faced 20 Commonwealth charges initially, but some were withdrawn after his guilty plea.

The charges relate to the use of a carriage service in a harassing or offensive way and distribution of images without consent.

The case is significant as it is the first prosecution under Australia's new law, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.

The law aims to address the rising threat of AI-manipulated sexual images, particularly deepfake pornography.

Experts have highlighted that deepfake pornography overwhelmingly targets women and girls, constituting 98% of such material online, with a 550% increase in explicit deepfakes since 2019.

Australia's internet regulator, the eSafety Commission, has been actively warning about this issue and working to ban apps that create manipulated images.

Yeates did not comment after his court appearance and is scheduled to return for a hearing in April.

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