Elena Michael, co-founder and Director of #NotYourPorn, said: “In the noise about this law being a Government success story, we must champion the stories of survivors behind the scenes, like Jodie, who didn’t give up and fought every day to be heard. This law has been crafted from Jodie’s experience and we are indebted to her for fighting for the rights of women and girls despite the enormous personal cost.
Although we are pleased the law is coming into force, it shouldn’t have taken a year or public outrage to bring it into fruition. This is a sobering reminder of how survivors lead change and that listening to survivors early on is not optional, it is essential to preventing harm. This is not the time to become complacent with the wins, there is much left to do and survivors like Jodie are at the heart of the solutions.”
Angela Christofilou
Clare McGlynn, Professor of Law at the University of Durham, said: “Every day, women face the threat of being deepfaked, a devastating violation that can shatter lives. This new law is a vital step towards ending image-based abuse. But it’s only the start.
We need comprehensive reforms that give women rights to get material taken down and deleted. We need a regulator that will take proactive and robust action against deep fake and nudify websites and apps.
And we need these actions urgently. Legal changes do not need to take years. We just need to prioritise acting against this industrial-scale abuse of women and girls.
This new law sends a clear message that deepfake sexual abuse is wrong and criminal. This provides the foundation for action; we now need to build on its foundations by granting civil rights to women and girls to get imagery removed and deleted. We also need strong action to ensure that platforms are held to account.”