A Perth woman was left horrified after discovering a group of men had secretly taken her photo at a pub and used AI to turn it into sexualised content — without her ever sending an intimate image or knowing that her photograph was being used.
A Pub Photo Becomes Fake Nudes
What started as a relaxing Friday evening over wine with a close friend at a Scarborough venue quickly turned into a nightmare for Perth saleswoman Jade Helen, after a group of eight to 10 men sitting nearby struck up a friendly conversation with the pair.
The friendly chat took a dark turn when one of the men secretly took a photo of Jade and uploaded it to an artificial intelligence programme.
'I had no idea he had taken a photo of me, then he put it into AI and altered the picture into sexualised content,' the 29-year-old told PerthNow, saying the image showed her making out with several of the men in the group.
But the men did not simply keep the AI-generated image to themselves.
'One of the men had passed the photo around, actually showing it to me and my friend, and they were all just laughing about it.'
@jade.helen Before anyone says it: I know this isn’t all men. I know there are plenty of incredible men who would never behave like this. But on Friday night, a group of grown men took a photo of me without my consent and used AI to s3xually alter it. They thought it was funny. And that’s exactly the problem. This isn’t about hating men. It’s about calling out a culture where humiliating and s3xualising women is still treated as a joke. Women shouldn’t have to wonder whether a photo taken of them in public is going to be s3xualised, edited or shared around for someone else’s entertainment. And while I could ask, “what if it was your sister, your girlfriend or your daughter?” I actually shouldn’t have to. Women shouldn’t need to belong to a man for their dignity to matter. It wasn’t funny. It was degrading. Do better. #NotAllMen #ButEnoughMen #RespectWomen #Misogyny #GirlTalk
♬ original sound - jadehelen
The men had also unknowingly taken a photograph of Jade's friend and used AI to create sexual content featuring her.
Jade initially brushed off the incident as drunken immaturity and left the venue with her friend. But after they discussed what had happened, she said she became increasingly angry about the men's actions.
'(My friend) said to me, "They've completely degraded you and withdrew your consent from this whole interaction, and just used you as entertainment" — that's when I realised how messed up it was,' she said.
No Nude Was Ever Sent
The incident left Jade with a stark realisation about how little someone using AI may need to create sexualised material.
'You don't even have to pose, you don't have to send any intimate images — you don't even have to know the person who's creating it, and that's frightening.'
Jade said an ordinary photograph could now be transformed within seconds into realistic-looking sexualised material.
'Given AI is so common nowadays, it means someone can just take an ordinary photo of you and within seconds, create something sexualised, degrading, or completely fabricated that looks really realistic.'
After processing what had happened, Jade and her friend contacted both the venue and law enforcement to report the incident.
'The venue took it really seriously straight away, they said that's not how they treat people and it's not the culture they want in their bar,' Jade told PerthNow.
PerthNow reported that venue management later used Scantek data to identify the alleged perpetrator and banned him from the venue.
AI Abuse Tests The Law
While the venue responded promptly, Jade was frustrated by how law enforcement addressed the incident.
In communications between the women and police seen by PerthNow, detectives told them that dealing with AI-generated explicit images represented 'a whole new world'.
'Unfortunately, the law and law enforcement can be slow and behind the eight ball, especially when technology currently seems to change daily,' a detective wrote.
Another message from the detective said: 'At this point, there is no law that determines artificial intelligent created photos or media.'
Australia introduced Commonwealth criminal offences dealing specifically with sexually explicit material created or altered using technology, including artificial intelligence. PerthNow reported that only one person had been prosecuted under the new AI laws since their enactment in 2024.
The Commonwealth offences introduced in September 2024 specifically target the creation and non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit material online, including material created or altered using technology such as deepfakes.
Western Australian law separately defines an 'intimate image' to include certain images that have been created or altered to appear to show a person's genital area, breasts or the person engaged in a private act. Section 221BC defines 'distributing' an intimate image to include communicating or exhibiting it to another person, while section 221BD makes non-consensual distribution an offence.
WA Police confirmed to PerthNow that Western Australian legislation criminalises the non-consensual distribution or threatened distribution of intimate images, including images created or altered using AI.
The force also said it was consulting the Office of the Commissioner for Victims of Crime as part of a statutory review considering ways to strengthen the legislative framework, including in relation to possession of AI-generated or manipulated intimate content without consent.
That means the legal position is more nuanced than simply whether the images were posted online. In Jade's case, the images were shown to her and her friend in person, and the precise circumstances of how existing state and Commonwealth provisions applied were not resolved in the PerthNow report.
Jade said it was this information from police that spurred her to share the incident on social media.
A TikTok about the situation quickly gained attention across WA, with the video amassing 72,000 views in two days.
The 29-year-old received numerous comments urging her to contact the eSafety Commissioner — advice she said she wished she had received from police before taking the matter online.
'The police weren't able to help, which with no laws that might've been all they could do, but they also didn't guide us in any way to report it to eSafety or anything,' she told PerthNow.
'They acknowledged it was wrong but there was just no guidance for me either without the power of social media.'
PerthNow said it had contacted WA Police about the incident and policing surrounding AI-generated images.
A 'Running Joke' With AI
As reactions to the incident continued online, Jade received a direct message from the man who allegedly created the sexualised images of her.
'I made the AI picture as a joke to show (my friend) because we have a running joke with him and his girlfriend,' the man explained in private messages seen by PerthNow.
'I didn't want to make you feel that way but it clearly wasn't a joke to you . . . that was wrong of me and you didn't deserve any of that.'
Jade said the explanation left her even more worried about how people in the community were using AI.
'Saying it's a running joke tells me it's not the first time he's done this to women and it might not even be the last time sadly,' she said.
'It's a scary thing with AI where if someone is easily doing this as a 'running joke', what else are they doing?'
She said the fact that the images were shown to both women made the incident even more disturbing.
'The fact they also showed my friend and I the images they made of us shows they must've been so unaware of how wrong it was, like they expected us to just laugh.'
AI Gives Misogyny A New Outlet
Jade told PerthNow she hoped her experience would highlight how easily AI could be used to create misogynistic content.
'I've seen the entire movement on women's violence and consent over the years, and it's shocking how misogyny has kind of evolved with technology,' she said.
'So you can't do it out loud anymore because people will hold you accountable, but AI will let you do that? Like how is this a thing?'
'AI might be new, but respect isn't.'
She also encouraged people across Perth to stand up if they saw friends behaving inappropriately.
'It's really important to stand up to this stuff and say it's wrong,' she said.
'Not one of those men did — in a group of eight to 10, not one of them said to their friends that this was wrong.'
'We need to stand up for women and each other.'
