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Legislation Series: Degrading and humiliating deepfakes- South Australia's new laws.

  • Gov+AI
  • 4 days ago
  • 3 min read
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The Summary Offences (Artificially Generated Content) Amendment Bill 2024 has introduced important changes to South Australian law, focusing on how deepfake technology is addressed legally when it is used for humiliating or degrading purposes.

This legislation

complements federal reforms like the Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Act 2024, a demonstrates an strong commitment by South Australia to tackling image-based abuse.


Positive changes

  • The law now makes it a criminal offence to create or share images or videos generated entirely by AI or digital technology that are humiliating, degrading, or invasive and which closely resemble a real person.

  • This covers content that may be violent or sexually explicit.

  • Before this amendment, the law mostly covered deepfakes created by editing real images or videos. The amendment closes the gap by including deepfakes made completely from scratch using AI.

  • Penalties include fines of up to $20,000 or up to four years in prison.

  • Courts can order offenders to hand over any equipment or records used to create or share deepfakes.

  • The law applies regardless of whether the person targeted is a minor or adult, celebrity or private individual.

  • Written consent by the person depicted is a defence, but consent by minors under 17 is not valid, nor consent obtained through coercion or deception.

 

What this means for South Australian’s

  • There are now more comprehensive legal protections against humiliating and degrading AI-generated images or videos.

  • Individuals impacted can report the matter to the police who can investigate and take action against the offender.

  • If the AI-created content is shared online, the law supports removing harmful material and punishing those responsible.

How could protections be further strengthened in the future?

Denmark’s moves to give a person copyright over their likeness deals with all AI deepfakes, not just those which depict someone in a humiliating or degrading way.


For example, if someone’s likeness is used without consent, individuals can legally demand that platforms and hosts remove AI-generated images, audio, or videos. This is similar to copyright takedown procedures and allows rapid responses to unauthorized content dissemination. Online platforms that fail to respond properly or promptly to takedown requests face penalties, including significant fines under the EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA). In addition to creators being held accountable, this law will hold companies accountable for hosting unlawful deepfake content.


In addition, unlike traditional libel or privacy claims that require proof of reputational damage or malicious intent, the law allows affected individuals to claim compensation for unauthorised use of their likeness even without demonstrating specific harm.



Good to know definitions

The following are excerpts from the Summary Offences (Artificially Generated


26F Interpretations

humiliating or degrading depiction, in relation to a simulated person, means artificially generated content depicting—

(a) an assault or other act of violence done by or against the simulated person; or

(b) an act done by or against the simulated person that reasonable adult members of the community would, were the act to be done by or against a real person, consider to be humiliating or degrading to the real person (but does not include an act that reasonable adult members of the community would consider to cause only minor or moderate embarrassment);

invasive depiction, in relation to a simulated person, means artificially generated content depicting—

(a) the simulated person in a state of undress such that—

(i) in the case of a simulated female person—the bare breasts are visible; or

(ii) in any case—the bare genital or anal region is visible; or

(b) the simulated person performing a private act,

however, a depiction of a simulated person that falls within the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults in the community will not be taken to be an invasive depiction;

private act means—

(a) a sexual act; or

(b) an act carried out in a sexual manner; or

(c) urinating or defecating;

simulated person means a person depicted in artificially generated content that—

(a) purports to be a depiction of a particular real person; or

(b) so closely resembles a depiction of a particular real person that a reasonable person who knew the real person would consider it likely to be a depiction of the real person.



Sources

South Australian Attorney-General’s Department media release, November 2, 2025 [agd.sa.gov.au](https://www.agd.sa.gov.au/news/nation-leading-changes-tackling-the-dark-side-of-artificial-intelligence) 


South Australian Parliament Hansard, Second Reading Speech, October 17, 2024 [hansardsearch.parliament.sa.gov.au](https://hansardsearch.parliament.sa.gov.au/daily/uh/2024-10-17/33) 



*This blog was produced with assitance from AI. All sources have been verified.

 

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