{"id":112789,"date":"2025-09-02T09:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112789\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:02:08","slug":"warning-for-parents-as-government-vows-to-restrict-nudify-apps-used-to-create-child-abuse-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112789\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning for parents as government vows to restrict ‘nudify’ apps used to create child abuse material"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former law enforcement worker is urging Australian parents to avoid sharing photos of their children on public platforms, as the government vows to restrict access to AI tools used to create child abuse material.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains details of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government would crack down on AI technology such as “nudify” apps and undetectable online stalking tools that enable predators to create child abuse material.<\/p>\n

She made the announcement ahead of a round table on Tuesday morning, when parliamentarians and child safety experts discussed strategies to clamp down on the spread of AI-generated child exploitation material.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group of leaders and experts, including National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds, child safety advocate Grace Tame, and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, warned AI was being used to generate child sexual abuse material, “deepfakes”, automated grooming, and child-like online personas.<\/p>\n

Danielle Kelly, a mother of two with a background in policing, said after working in child abuse prevention, she would never post photos of her children on a public domain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fake explicit image of Tilly was circulated. Now her mother is fighting for change<\/a><\/p>\n

Parents are grappling with the rise in fake explicit nude images being used by teenagers to target their female classmates.<\/p>\n

“It’s everyone’s own choice, but I would say make an educated choice about this,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I know what they talk about on the dark web and it’s a dark place.”<\/p>\n

She also urged single parents to avoid using photos of their children on dating app profiles.<\/p>\n

Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:1800 Respect National Helpline<\/a>: 1800 737 732Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Bravehearts<\/a>: counselling and support for survivors of child sexual abuse: 1800\u00a0272\u00a0831Child Wise<\/a>: counselling provider: 1800\u00a0991\u00a0099<\/p>\n

Ms Kelly said police officers investigating online child abuse material were exposed to “really, really horrific stuff”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re talking about babies that are being abused, we’re talking about teenagers who are being sexually extorted for money or for other purposes,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It gets quite dark and I think that’s something the Australian community isn’t really aware of.”<\/p>\n

Ms Kelly is now the head of capacity and prevention at child safety advocacy body ICMEC Australia, which convened the national round table to push for a nationwide awareness campaign on AI-generated abuse.<\/p>\n

They also lobbied for police training to use AI to assist with criminal investigations, as well as a review of facial recognition capability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is Australia’s pivotal moment,” ICMEC Australia chief executive Colm Gannon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We can lead by example and help to generate a world where technology cannot be used to harm children.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Independent MP Kate Chaney and ICMEC Australia chief executive Colm Gannon spoke at the round table. (Supplied: ICMEC Australia)<\/p>\n

Independent MP Kate Chaney said she urged the government to implement her private member’s bill, which seeks to criminalise the use of AI child abuse tools such as “nudify” apps.<\/p>\n

Ms Wells told reporters the government’s AI child abuse plan would go further than Ms Chaney’s bill by trying to “stop it at the source”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said the scale of harm from AI-generated abuse was escalating, “with reports to e-Safety from people under 18 doubling in the past 18 months”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In one Melbourne case, investigators found 50 female students at a single high school were the victims of sexually explicit deepfakes,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Wells said the government would investigate ways to prevent “nudification” undetectable stalking harm “at a national level”.<\/p>\n

She said the government would examine ways the e-safety commissioner could block harmful apps, or direct the platforms to remove them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former law enforcement worker is urging Australian parents to avoid sharing photos of their children on public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,63,203,105],"class_list":["post-112789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}