Sexting & Sextortion Scams

Last October, 14-year-old Elliston Berry woke up to a nightmare.

The teen’s phone was flooded with calls and texts telling her that someone had shared fake nude images of her on Snapchat and other social media platforms.

“I was told it went around the whole school,” Berry, from Texas, told Fox News. “And it was just so scary going through classes and attending school, because just the fear of everyone seeing these images, it created so much anxiety.”

The photos were AI-generated - what’s known as deepfakes. These generated images and videos have become frighteningly prevalent in recent years. Deepfakes are made to look hyper-realistic and are often used to impersonate major public figures or create fake pornography. But they can also cause significant harm to regular people.

Berry, now 15, is calling on lawmakers to write criminal penalties into law for perpetrators to protect future victims of deepfake images.

The teen told the outlet that after discovering what had happened, she immediately went to her parents. Her mother, Anna McAdams, told Fox News she knew the images were fake. McAdams then reached out to Snapchat several times over an eight-month period to have the photos removed.

While the deepfakes of Berry were eventually taken down, McAdams told CNN, the classmate who distributed them is facing few repercussions…….



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...on-berry-deepfakes-social-media-b2566806.html