AI driving ‘explosion’ of fake nudes as victims say the law is failing them
Campaigners are warning the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create realistic but fake nude images of real women is becoming “normalised”.
It’s also an increasing concern in schools. A recent survey by Internet Matters found 13% of teenagers have had an experience with nude deepfakes, while the NSPCC told Sky News “a new harm is developing”.
Ofcom will later this month introduce codes of practice for internet companies to clamp down on the illegal distribution of fake nudes, but Sky News has met two victims of this relatively new trend, who say the law needs to go further.
Earlier this year, social media influencer and former Love Island contestant, Cally Jane Beech, 33, was horrified when she discovered someone had used AI to turn an underwear brand photograph of her into a nude and it was being shared online.
The original image had been uploaded to a site that uses software to digitally transform a clothed picture into a naked picture.
Cally Jane Beech says she was horrified after a photo of her was turned into a nude and shared online
She told Sky News: “It looked so realistic, like nobody but me would know. It was like looking at me, but also not me.”
She added: “There shouldn’t be such a thing. It’s not a colouring book. It’s not a bit of fun. It’s people’s identity and stripping their clothes off.”
When Cally reported what had happened to the police, she struggled to get them to treat it as a crime.
“They didn’t really know what they could do about it, and because the site that hosted the image was global, they said that it’s out of their jurisdiction,” she said.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
In November, Assistant Chief Constable Samantha Miller, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, addressed a committee of MPs on the issue and concluded “the system is failing”, with a lack of capacity and inconsistency of practice across forces.
ACC Miller told the women and equalities committee she’d recently spoken to a campaigner who was in contact with 450 victims and “only two of them had a positive experience of policing”.
The government says new legislation outlawing the generation of AI nudes is coming next year, although it is already illegal to make fake nudes of minors.
Meanwhile, the problem is growing with multiple apps available for the purpose of unclothing people in photographs. Anyone can become a victim, although it is nearly always women.
Professor Clare McGlynn, an expert in online harms, said: “We’ve seen an exponential rise in the use of sexually explicit deepfakes. For example, one of the largest, most notorious websites dedicated to this abuse receives about 14 million hits a month.
“These nudify apps are easy to get from the app store, they’re advertised on Tik Tok, So, of course, young people are downloading them and using them. We’ve normalised the use of these nudify apps.”
‘Betrayed by my best friend’
Sky News spoke to “Jodie” (not her real name) from Cambridge who was tipped off by an anonymous email that she appeared to be in sex videos on a pornographic website.
“The images that I posted on Instagram and Facebook, which were fully clothed, were manipulated and turned into sexually explicit material,” she said.
Alex Woolf avoided jail and was told to pay £100 to each of his 15 victims
Jodie began to suspect someone she knew was posting pictures and encouraging people online to manipulate them.
Then she found a particular photograph, taken outside King’s College in Cambridge, that only one person had.
It was her best friend, Alex Woolf. She had airdropped the picture to him alone.
Woolf, who once won BBC young composer of the year, was later convicted of offences against 15 women, mostly because of Jodie’s perseverance and detective work.
Even then, his conviction only related to the offensive comments attached to the images, because while it’s illegal to share images – it’s not a crime to ask others to create them.
Jodie identified Woolf as he was the only one she’d sent this photo to
He was given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay £100 to each of his victims.
Jodie believes it’s imperative new laws are introduced to outlaw making and soliciting these types of images.
“My abuse is not your fun,” she said.
“Online abuse has the same effect psychologically that physical abuse does. I became suicidal, I wasn’t able to trust those closest to me because I had been betrayed by my best friend. And the effect of that on a person is monumental.”
‘A scary, lonely place’
A survey in October by Teacher Tap found 7% of teachers answered yes to the question: “In the last 12 months, have you had an incident of a student using technology to create a fake sexually graphic image of a classmate?”
In their campaigning both Cally and Jodie have come across examples of schoolgirls being deep faked.
Cally said: “It is used as a form of bullying because they think it’s funny. But it can have such a mental toll, and it must be a very scary and lonely place for a young girl to be dealing with that.”
Read more from Sky News:
Paedophile who made AI abuse images jailed for 18 years
Google’s AI chatbot Gemini tells user to ‘please die‘
Sex offenders using virtual reality to abuse children
The NSPCC said it has had calls about nude deepfakes to its helpline.
The charity’s policy manager for child safety online, Rani Govender, said the pictures can be used as “part of a grooming process” or as a form of blackmail, as well as being passed around by classmates “as a form of bullying and harassment”.
“Children become scared, isolated and they worry they won’t be believed that the images are created by someone else,” Ms Govender said.
She added: “This is a new harm, and it is developing, and it will require new measures from the government with child protection as a priority.”
Alex Davies-Jones, under-secretary of state for victims, told MPs in November: “We’ve committed to making an offence of creating a deepfake illegal and we will be legislating for that this session.”
For campaigners like Jodie and Cally the new laws can’t come soon enough. However, they worry they won’t have strong enough clauses around banning the soliciting of content and ensuring images are removed once they’ve been discovered.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Southend Airport has been closed until further notice after a small plane crashed – as video footage emerged showing the aftermath of a huge fireball.
Images posted online showed large flames and a cloud of black smoke following the incident on Sunday afternoon.
Essex Police said it responded to “reports of a collision involving one 12-metre plane” shortly before 4pm.
“We are working with all emergency services at the scene now and that work will be ongoing for several hours,” the statement said.
“We would please ask the public to avoid this area where possible while this work continues.”
Southend Airport said it would be “closed until further notice” due to the “serious incident”.
“We ask that any passengers due to travel (on Monday) via London Southend Airport contact their airline for information and advice,” it added.
A huge fireball near the airport. Pic: Ben G
Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, confirmed its SUZ1 flight had been “involved in an accident” at the airport and its thoughts were with “everyone who has been affected”.
It has been reported that the plane involved in the incident is a Beech B200 Super King Air.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar, it took off at 3.48pm and was bound for Lelystad, a city in the Netherlands.
Pilots ‘waved’ to families watching planes
One man, who was at the airport with his wife and children, told Sky News the plane crashed within seconds of taking off.
John Johnson said the pilots “waved” at his family as they taxied the aircraft.
“We all waved [back] at them,” he continued. “They carried on taxiing to their take-off point and turned around.
“Then they throttled up the engines and passed by us. The aircraft took off and within a few seconds it had a steep bank angle to its left.”
The aircraft then “almost seemed to invert and unfortunately crashed,” he said. “There was a large fireball.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Smoke seen after small plane crashes
‘Airport was in lockdown’
Wren Stranix, 16, from Woodbridge in Suffolk, was in another aircraft waiting to take off for Newquay, Cornwall, with her family and boyfriend when the plane came down.
They watched from their aircraft as the emergency services arrived and were not able to leave their seats.
“The flight attendant didn’t know what was going on,” she told Sky News. “They said the plane had exploded and they didn’t know if it was safe or not. The airport was in lockdown.”
Plumes of black smoke. Pic: UKNIP
They were eventually allowed back in the terminal to wait before all flights were cancelled.
Southend Airport said the incident involved “a general aviation aircraft”.
Read more from Sky News:
Liverpool honours Jota at first game since his death
Trump threatens to revoke comedian’s US citizenship
A photo of the plane at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in September 2024. Pic: Pascal Weste
After the incident, EasyJet – one of just a few airlines that uses the airport – said all of its remaining flights to and from Southend had been “diverted to alternative airports or are no longer able to operate”.
The airline said it has contacted customers who were due to travel on Sunday. Anyone due to fly on Monday should check online for up-to-date information, it added.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said four crews, along with off-road vehicles, have attended the scene.
The East of England Ambulance Service said four ambulances, four hazardous area response team vehicles and an air ambulance had been sent to the incident.
Fire engines at the airport
David Burton-Sampson, the MP for Southend West and Leigh, asked people to keep away from the area and “allow the emergency services to do their work” in a post on social media.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “monitoring the situation closely and receiving regular updates”.
Essex Police have set up a dedicated public portal and phone line where people can contact them about the crash at https://esxpol.uk/LIbaz and on 0800 0961011.
Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said: “In these very early stages it is vital we gather the information we need, and continue supporting the people of Essex.”
He added: “We are working closely with all at the scene, as well as the Air Accident Investigation Branch, to establish what has happened today and why.”
UK
Gregg Wallace: Half the allegations against MasterChef presenter substantiated, including one of unwanted physical contact
An investigation into Gregg Wallace’s “inappropriate behaviour” on MasterChef has found that more than half of the allegations against him have been substantiated, including one of “unwanted physical contact”.
MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK shared a summary of its report into historical allegations of misconduct against the 60-year-old presenter, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin over seven months.
The report also said the number of sustained allegations made Wallace’s return to MasterChef “untenable”.
The investigation heard evidence from 78 witnesses, including 41 complainants.
There were 83 allegations against Wallace, and 45 of them were substantiated. All were related to MasterChef.
While the majority of the substantiated allegations related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated.
One allegation of unwanted physical contact was substantiated.
Nearly all the allegations against Wallace were related to behaviour which is said to have occurred between 2005 and 2018, with just one substantiated allegation taking place post-2018.
Wallace and Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2014
Ahead of the publication of the summary, Wallace had said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
Additionally, the report summary found that there were also 10 standalone allegations about other people between 2012 and 2018/2019, two of which were substantiated. Those people were not named in the summary.
The investigation found that complaints had previously been raised with the production company between 2005 and 2024.
Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
While the report flagged inadequate reporting procedures prior to 2016, when Endemol merged with Shine ahead of Banijay acquiring Endemol Shine in 2020, it said there were significant improvements to HR processes and training after 2016.
While the investigation said some formal action was taken by the BBC in 2017, it also noted the corporation held no information regarding concerns raised over Wallace centrally, resulting in issues being addressed as a first offence.
Sky News has tried to contact Gregg Wallace for contact today.
The dates for Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK have been announced, with the US president due to be welcomed by the King from 17 to 19 September.
Buckingham Palace also confirmed that President Trump and first lady Melania will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle.
It was expected that the three-day state visit would take place in September after Mr Trump let slip earlier in April that he believed that was when his second “fest” was being planned for.
Windsor was also anticipated to be the location after the US president told reporters in the Oval Office that the letter from the King said Windsor would be the setting. Refurbishment works at Buckingham Palace also meant that Windsor was used last week for French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit.
This will be Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK, an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been invited to Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Donald Trump and Melania Trump posing with Charles and Camilla in 2019. Pic: Reuters
He has also been to Windsor Castle before, in 2018, but despite the considerable military pageantry of the day, and some confusion around inspecting the guard, it was simply for tea with Queen Elizabeth II.
Further details of what will happen during the three-day visit in September will be announced in due course.
On Friday, Sky News revealed it is now unlikely that the US president will address parliament, usually an honour given to visiting heads of state as part of their visit. Some MPs had raised significant concerns about him being given the privilege.
But the House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump’s visit as it will rise for party conference season on the 16 September, meaning the president will not be able to speak in parliament as President Macron did during his state visit this week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Labour MP: ‘Trump isn’t welcome here’
In February this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented the US president with the letter from the King inviting him to visit during a meeting at the White House.
After reading it, Mr Trump said it was a “great, great honour”, adding “and that says at Windsor – that’s really something”.
In February, Sir Keir Starmer revealed a letter from the King inviting Donald Trump to the UK. Pic: Reuters
In the letter, the King suggested they might meet at Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland first before the much grander state visit. However, it is understood that, although all options were explored, complexities in both the King and Mr Trump’s diaries meant it wasn’t possible.
Read more from Sky News:
Is the UK ready for a ‘Trump-fest’?
Elton and Jagger at royal banquet
King and Trump won’t hold private meeting
This week, it emerged that Police Scotland are planning for a summer visit from the US president, which is likely to see him visit one or both of his golf clubs in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire, and require substantial policing resources and probably units to be called in from elsewhere in the UK.
Precedent for second-term US presidents, who have already made a state visit, is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike