Deepfake porn, 1 in 10 teenagers know the victims

One in eight 13- to 20-year-olds, and one in 10 13- to 17-year-olds, said they 'personally know someone' who has been the subject of deepfake nude images, and 1 in 17 have been victims themselves. These are some of the figures from Thorn, an American non-profit group concerned with the safety of young people, which sheds light on the growing phenomenon of nude deepfakes, a subcategory of deepfakes.

With special software - such as Clothoff blocked by the Privacy Guarantor - one is able to undress a subject, thus creating a nude image made artificially and without the subject's consent. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift have been victims of this - in 2014, a fake porn image of her was seen on social networks by millions - and it can affect everyone. According to Graphika, a company that analyses social networks, millions of people visit over 100 'nudify' sites online every month. And, according to a survey in the UK by the security company Eset, one in 10 women has been the victim of deepfake pornography. Besides 'Clothoff' other applications such as BikiniOff and DeepNude manipulate photos of individuals and manage to recreate fake pornographic content.

Already in 2020, the Garante Privacy had dealt with these issues and had opened an investigation against Telegram, a channel through which these bots were disseminated. Subsequently, the authority had provided an information sheet related to the possible risks of using these technologies, in order to raise awareness among users. Also according to Thorn's research, 13 per cent of teenagers said they knew someone who had used artificial intelligence to create or redistribute pornographic deepfake material to minors. There have also been cases in Italy related to deepfake porn. In 2023, two students from a middle school in Rome were arrested for publishing on social networks photos of female peers created with the BikiniOff application. In 2024, in the province of Latina, five underage students did the same thing by taking, and then falsifying, photos of some female companions from their Instagram profiles.