Does Washington State have a “deep fake” law? 

Imagine that you are a parent of a teenage girl and then photos show up on the Internet that appear to show her naked. Thanks to AI this could have happened in Washington state.  What did happen was a 9th grade boy took some photos of girls at a homecoming dance and then using AI made changes to those photos that made the girls appear to be naked and then started sharing them around school. 

Now the state has a new law that Went into effect on June 6th, the aim of which is to protect children and adults from the consequences of deep fake images. 

according to kiro7.com,
‘A new state law that is aimed at protecting children and adults from the devastating consequences of deepfake images goes into effect on June 6. State Senator Mark Mullet is one of the legislators who worked on passing the bill after he heard about an incident from his daughter who attends Issaquah High School.’ 

The new law makes a first Offense a misdemeanor, repeat offenders are bumped up to a felony. Senator Mark Mullet was one of the legislators who worked on passing the bill after he heard about the incident at Issaquah High School from his daughter. 

Up to that point, there was no actual laws on the books preventing this from happening. Happily, there is one now and although the law is not retroactive. It's in the books and ready to be used when needed. 

Just a reminder that technology is not always our best friend. 

New state deepfake image protection law goes into effect June 6 – KIRO 7 News Seattle