'Yes, this kind of crime is sexual': Deepfake porn victim speaks out

A victim of deepfake pornography has spoken out about the harm caused by AI-generated sexual imagery, and about a legal system still catching up to it.

She describes the experience as a sexual crime in every way that matters to the person targeted, regardless of whether the images were physically real.

Advocates say the technology has made this form of abuse trivially easy to produce and extremely difficult to remove once it circulates.

New Zealand law covers intimate visual recordings, but the application to synthetic material has been uneven, and enforcement depends heavily on platforms cooperating.

Those working with victims argue for clearer offences and faster takedown obligations, alongside education aimed at the young men most often creating the material.