Sharing or threatening to share sexually explicit deepfake images are already illegal in England and Wales under the Online Safety Act, which passed last year.
The last Conservative government also promised to make creating such images a criminal offence.
However, its proposals ran out of time to become law when the general election was called in May.
Campaigners had raised concerns the proposals would make creating such images a crime only if someone wanted to cause “alarm, humiliation or distress to the victim”, rather than simply if the individual had not consented to their image being used in this way.
Online safety campaigner Baroness Kidron urged the Labour government to ensure any new legislation would not require malicious intent to be proven.
The crossbench peer said: “The one thing we know is that, if you have to prove intent, it is worse than useless.”
Baroness Owen said her bill would be consent-based so the burden was not on the victim to prove intent.
Lord Ponsonby said the government was “actively considering” this issue.
However, he added that in a criminal case “the onus is never on the victim to marshal evidence or to prove intent of the perpetrator”, and this would be a matter for the police and prosecutors.
Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said any legislation must be consent-based and cover solicitation as well as creation to be effective.
“The public wants to see change and the government must now deliver on this manifesto commitment,” she added.
Source:
www.bbc.com
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