The U.K. government of Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that it will make “creating sexually explicit deepfake images a criminal offense” as it cracks down on “vile online abuse.”

“The proliferation of these hyper-realistic images has grown at an alarming rate, causing devastating harm to victims, particularly women and girls who are often the target,” it highlighted. “To tackle this, the government will introduce a new offense meaning perpetrators could be charged for both creating and sharing these images, not only marking a crackdown on this abhorrent behavior but making it clear there is no excuse for creating a sexually explicit deepfake of someone without their consent.”

The new sexually explicit deepfakes offenses, which will be included in the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, will apply to “images,” a word that in British law not only covers photos but also videos or films,...