Police go nationwide with anti-deepfake campaign

Essex Police has said it is working with other forces to expand its campaign educating families about the dangers of AI-generated content.

In November, the force launched its Fake or Real? Know the Deal project, and it has since been targeting schools and training staff at EE phone stores.

AI-manipulated videos, pictures and audio - made to look real - are often referred to as deepfakes.

Det Insp Emma Portfleet said the force was the first to partner with a phone company on a project like this and said she wanted to expand it nationally.

"We want this to be one message that goes out to absolutely everybody," she said.

"The aim of the campaign is to educate not just adults and parents, but children as well in a really engaging way - a way that isn't scary, doesn't produce fear."

Sexualised content should be reported to police, but can also be flagged to the Internet Watch Foundation or Childline.

Earlier this month, Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage was forced to dispel rumours that he had been in a fight with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey after a series of fake, AI-generated videos went viral on X.

Jess Asato, the Labour MP for Lowestoft, is suing Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, after sexualised images were generated of her.

She told BBC Essex presenter Sonia Watson how she had been working with victims of deepfake pornography before her incident.

"It was only a matter of time, I guess, until it happened to me," she said.

"I heard a case of a mum who said that her daughter had her image taken by a boy at school, put into a bikini and made to dance, and then that went round the school. and that was really, really distressing for the girl.

"I think that there should be much stronger regulation around who's allowed to use your image, your voice and your video because otherwise this can really fool some people."

Despite numerous approaches from the BBC for comment in response to Asato's action, xAI has not responded.

Prof Sander van der Linden, a behavioural scientist at the University of Cambridge, warned online users to be wary if a video "seems outrageous".

"Do an independent search. 'Can I find anything to actually verify this information?'," he suggested.

He advised not to click on any internet links that seemed suspicious, and instead look out for small suspicious variances to the text.

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