The Personal Devastation of Deepfakes

A landmark court case in Adelaide spotlit the growing harm of deepfake abuse — and why families, schools and communities need to pay attention.

Marshall Ballantine-Jones from Resist Ministries told Hope Mornings this is a significant moment for how Australia handles image-based abuse.

A 19-year-old was accused of sharing intimate fake images of a woman he knew, on various social media platforms.

“The court case basically found him guilty of violating a law in South Australia, making deepfakes of another person for the purpose of intimidating or degrading took place,” Marshall said.

Deepfakes are “an image-based abuse medium”, according to Marshall.

“Essentially, it’s when you use software – often artificial-intelligence assisted – to take a person and create a completely fictitious and untrue scenario of them.”

“There’s a spectrum of how they can be created.

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“[Deepfakes] can be images which are sexualised, nudified, or they can just be outright and generally offensive … putting them in degrading, humiliating, sometimes abusive and violent situations.”

With many apps and programs available to create such images, “there’s a very, very powerful capacity for us to take a person and misuse them by creating these fake images.”

For Marshall, the Adelaide ruling sends a clear message.

“The big standout is that the authorities are taking this seriously,” he said.

“This is stuff which is no longer just threat. A guy has been found guilty.”

The verdict also should stop younger Australians in their tracks as it demonstrates “there’s no age that is excluded from these laws”.

Marshall noted South Australia’s laws have a “unique angle” because deepfakes or image-based abuse material includes non-sexual content as well as sexual.

“At a Federal level we have laws … but they are explicitly confined to sexual images.”

But across Australia’s states and territories, “these are serious crimes”.

“In New South Wales there’s up to three years’ imprisonment. In the Federal arena, seven years.”

Beyond legal penalties, Marshall pointed to the human cost.

“What’s behind these laws is abuse, and abuse has catastrophic impacts on the people who are targeted,” he said.

“I’ve seen… just how devastating and shockingly intimidating this content is to the person for whom it’s targeted.”

Often speaking at high schools about pornography, online abuse and the human toll, Marshall didn’t hesitate when asked about what he’s seeing in schools.

“The behaviours of using deepfakes is rife. It’s happening at a highly frequent level,” he said.

“The difficulty with young people is that they don’t appreciate the consequences — and the consequences are real.”

That’s where Marshall believes communities — including Christians — have a role to play.

“We’ve got an urgent issue to inform our young people of how serious these behaviours are and what’s at stake for them and for other people as well,” Marshall said.

“Part of this is educating the school authorities, teachers, executives in the schools about these laws as well.

“Sometimes schools are so caught up in the day-to-day stuff that they may not realise how the laws have shifted and how much more serious they are.”

Technology can be used to harm or help and this prominent South Australia case highlights the responsibility we carry for one another.

Listen to the full conversation in the player above.

This article was prepared with AI assistance and then carefully reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by our Digital Team.

Feature image: Canva Pro