A 19-year-old Australian man, William Hamish Yeates, has pleaded guilty to creating and distributing deepfake pornography, becoming the first person convicted under a national law that criminalises the non-consensual manipulation of sexual images. Yeates admitted four offences, including creating altered sexual material without consent and distributing it via multiple accounts on X, and will return to court in April for sentencing — where he could face up to seven years in prison. The case highlights a rapidly growing form of image-based abuse that Australia's eSafety Commission (the country's internet regulator) warns has surged by as much as 550% year-on-year since 2019, with women and girls accounting for 99% of those targeted.