Australian teenager William Hamish Yeates pleaded guilty to creating deepfake pornography. The 19-year-old faces up to seven years under new national laws banning sexual image manipulation.
Yeates admitted four charges: altering sexual material without consent, distribution, and offensive carriage service use. Prosecutors dropped 16 other charges after his plea. He distributed victim images across multiple X accounts.
Experts call deepfake porn the new frontier of gendered image abuse and schoolyard bullying. AI technology overwhelmingly targets women and girls. Australia’s eSafety Commission reports 550% yearly increase since 2019.
Pornographic videos dominate 98% of deepfake content online. 99% depicts women and girls. Yeates stayed silent leaving court—sentencing set for April.
Some states enacted their own deepfake laws, but Yeates marks the first federal prosecution.
