Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to raise the extremely important point about victim support and the impact that this has on people. We have seen testimonies and reports of how devastating, degrading and humiliating this experience can be. The Revenge Porn Helpline is doing fantastic work in providing specialist support and help with getting images removed from the internet, and I commend it for that activity.

On the question on the investigation process, the Secretary of State has been clear that she expects an update from Ofcom on next steps as soon as possible and that she expects Ofcom to use its full legal powers. We hope that that will be clear as soon as possible.

[Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as I am receiving pro bono legal advice on NCII from Mishcon de Reya. I am delighted that the Government are finally enforcing the law that noble Lords in this House pushed so strongly for in the passage of the data Bill, criminalising the non-consensual creation and requesting of intimate images. However, I cannot help but feel frustrated that, along with survivors, I have been asking the Government to enforce this law since it achieved Royal Assent last June. I hope it is now clear to the Government that we cannot afford any similar delays. With this in mind, will the Minister commit to looking again at my amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill that just last month the Government would not accept, which would implement a 48-hour time limit for the takedown of NCII material and a hash registry? Will she also join me in thanking the survivors and campaigners, who have fought for so long for this law, for their bravery and perseverance?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her remarks, and for her expertise and input over the course of many years in this area. On the take-down time, we are looking at the experience in other jurisdictions, as I mentioned. We are also looking at the experience of the timelines that are implemented in this country; that is something that Ofcom will look at. We will look at both the scope and the speed of both those jurisdictions. As I think noble Lords have seen, we will look at measures, and if we believe that they are effective and speak to the harms that we are seeing, we will take action.