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This page is about a bill. That means that it's not the law yet, but some people want it to be the law. It could change quickly, and some of the information is just a draft.

Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill

Introduction

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"What the law is trying to do"

Illustration for Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1536413.

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Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill, or

"Protecting People from Harmful Digital Images"

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General policy statement, or

"Protecting You from Harmful Fake Images and Videos"

General policy statement

Worldwide there has been a rise in the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes. This is where images or videos are digitally altered or synthesised to take an individual's recognisable likeness and turn it into sexually explicit material.

This form of material constitutes a clear violation of self-ownership and personal autonomy. Just as the unauthorised sharing of genuine intimate imagery is a rights infringement, so too is the false representation of a person in intimate contexts without consent. This conduct misappropriates a person's image for exploitative purposes, causing reputational, psychological, and often material harm. Criminalising such acts and enabling victims to seek redress and removal aligns with a commitment to defending individuals from coercion, fraud, and aggression.

This Bill holds accountable those who use digital tools to violate other individuals' agency. It does this by amending both the Crimes Act 1961 and the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 to expand the definition of an "intimate visual recording" to explicitly include images created, synthesised, or altered to show a person's likeness produced without consent.

This Bill is an omnibus Bill introduced under Standing Order 267(a).

Clause by clause analysis

Clause 1 is the Title clause.

Clause 2 is the commencement clause and provides for the Bill to come into force on the day after Royal assent.

Part 1 amends the Crimes Act 1961 to extend the definition of intimate visual recording to include images that are created, synthesised, or altered to appear to be intimate visual images. This extension will mean that the provisions relating to intimate visual images (sections 216H to 216N) will apply to created images.

Part 2 amends the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 to extend the definition of intimate visual recording in that Act to include images that are created, synthesised, or altered to appear to be intimate visual images. This extension will mean that the offence in section 22A of the Act will apply to created images.