An Australian teenager has pleaded guilty to creating deepfake pornography, in a landmark case.

William Hamish Yeates, 19, is the first person to be charged under a new national law which criminalises the manipulation of sexual images and carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Experts says deepfake pornography – often created through artificial intelligence technology, and overwhelmingly targeting women and girls – is the new frontier of gendered, image-based abuse and school bullying.

Yeates did not comment as he left court after admitting four offences on Wednesday. He will return for a hearing in April.

Yeates was previously facing 20 Commonwealth charges, but the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) withdraw some of them after he pleaded guilty to creating or altering sexual material without consent and distributing it, as well as using a carriage service in a harassing or offensive way.

The court heard Yeates had distributed images of his alleged victim across multiple X accounts without her consent.

A spokesman for Commonwealth prosecutors previously confirmed it was the first prosecution of its kind, though some states also have their own laws relating to deepfake material.

Australia’s internet regulator, the eSafety Commission, has been warning of the rising threat of AI manipulated material, and has been fighting to ban apps that ‘nudify’ subjects in Australia.

“There is compelling and concerning data that explicit deepfakes have increased on the internet as much as 550% year on year since 2019,” Julie Inman Grant wrote after advising parliament on the new laws in 2024.

“It’s a bit shocking to note that pornographic videos make up 98% of the deepfake material currently online and 99% of that imagery is of women and girls.”

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