Deepfake porn apps could cause a generation of young people to take a backwards step on gender equality, Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has warned, saying Australians must seriously consider pushing back against dangerous elements of artificial intelligence.
In a speech to be delivered in Melbourne on Thursday night, Plibersek will use her platform to warn parents that social media and AI mean many children are getting their initial sex education from pornography.
Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek says parents’ assumption that social media is a neutral space that children have control over is false.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Plibersek’s warning comes after the Albanese government earlier this month announced a $6.5 million age-verification pilot program and promised legislation to ban the creation and non-consensual distribution of deepfake pornography.
Parents’ assumption that social media is a neutral space that children have control over is false, Plibersek will say, with the “anti-feminist algorithm” and the radicalisation of young men in the “manosphere” pushing users towards misogynistic content and porn.
“Kids are watching choking and anal sex before they’ve even had their first kiss. Kids as young as 10 years old in Australia are viewing porn for the first time,” Plibersek will say according to a draft of the speech.
“We can’t reach our target of ending violence against women in a generation if the next generation of men is being trained by social media to hate and hurt women.”
She cites a 2017 survey on young Australians’ attitudes to violence against women and gender equality, which found that 52 per cent of young men believe many women exaggerated gender inequality and younger men were more likely than older men to believe women preferred men to take charge of relationships.
Plibersek will say governments and society are still playing catch-up since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, and the recent mainstreaming of AI is a “hinge moment in history”.
“Very soon, AI will have crashed through and transformed society in ways that many of us cannot understand now,” she will say.
“We must seriously consider pushing back against some of the more dangerous elements of AI, in a way we didn’t push back in 2007.”
The use of deepfake porn apps, which allow users to turn a photo of a person into a realistic pornographic image, is a particular concern to Plibersek, who says introducing legislation is one way to help curb its use, which is a global problem.
“These reforms will make clear that those who seek to abuse or degrade women through doxxing, deepfakes or by abusing their privacy online, will be subject to serious criminal penalties,” she says.
There is likely to be increased pressure on the government to respond to the development of AI technology. After a two-day Senate committee hearing into the technology, ACT independent senator David Pocock and teal independent MP Kate Chaney wrote to government ministers earlier this week to raise concerns about the potential risks AI poses to Australian democracy.
Plibersek’s speech will be delivered in Melbourne as part of the Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration at the Communities in Control conference, which invites a speaker each year to discuss a topic of importance to Australian society.
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