Global Regulators Target AI Deepfakes to Protect Women and Girls

The intersection of artificial intelligence and gender-based violence has reached a critical regulatory threshold, prompting a coordinated international response. In late February 2026, the Hong Kong Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data joined forces with over 60 overseas organizations to issue a definitive statement on the rising misuse of deepfakes. This move signals a shift in the cybersecurity landscape, moving beyond technical mitigation toward a human-centric regulatory framework that identifies technology-facilitated violence (TFV) as a systemic threat rather than a series of isolated incidents.

The core of the crisis lies in the democratization of sophisticated AI tools. While digital harassment and cyberstalking have existed since the dawn of the internet, generative AI has effectively lowered the barrier to entry for malicious actors. The statistics are stark: approximately 90% of non-consensual deepfake pornography depicts women and girls. This disproportionate impact suggests that current safety protocols are not merely failing, but are fundamentally misaligned with the lived realities of the most vulnerable users. By 'supercharging' the speed and scale of abuse, AI has transformed a localized problem into a pervasive digital epidemic.

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The statistics are stark: approximately 90% of non-consensual deepfake pornography depicts women and girls.

Industry experts and regulators are now advocating for a 'safety by design' philosophy. This approach argues that regulation alone is insufficient if the underlying technology is built on biased datasets or lacks inherent safeguards. To make AI safe, women and girls must be placed at the center of the technology’s lifecycle—from initial data collection and algorithmic design to governance and end-user reporting. This mirrors broader trends in the tech industry, such as the eSafety initiatives seen in Australia and the EU's AI Act, which increasingly demand that platforms anticipate and mitigate social harms before they manifest.