Privacy laws are playing their part in online safety regulation, Rebecca Cousin, Kathryn Martin Cussons
Publish Date: 2026-04-20 10:29:00
Source Domain: thelens.slaughterandmay.com
The debate about keeping people (especially children) safe online keeps making headlines.
That debate has accelerated as AI tools that can generate very realistic images and videos have become easy-to-use, widely available products. Legislators are responding at pace: the UK has criminalised the creation of non-consensual intimate images and is proposing a ban on “nudification” apps; in the EU, the AI Digital Omnibus proposals would ban AI systems from producing non-consensual sexually explicit images and child sexual abuse material (see our previous blog). Many are also closely watching how Australia’s ban on under-16s having social media accounts works in practice.
While new laws are debated and rolled out, privacy regulators aren’t waiting around. They’re using their existing powers (and publishing guidance) to protect individuals online, and to remind organisations that privacy law is part of the broader framework that shapes online content and safety.
Global Privacy Assembly: statement on AI‑generated imagery
On 23 February, the Global Privacy Assembly’s International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group published a Joint Statement on AI‑generated Imagery. It was signed by 61 data protection authorities, including the UK ICO and the European Data Protection Board. The takeaway is simple: existing privacy and data protection laws apply in full to organisations developing and using generative AI tools.
Privacy laws differ across the GPA signatories’ jurisdictions, but the statement identifies four core expectations that apply (in one form or another) for anyone building or using AI content-generation systems:
- Put robust safeguards in place to prevent misuse of personal data and the creation of non-consensual intimate imagery (especially child sexual abuse material);
- Be genuinely transparent about what the system can do, what safeguards exist, what uses are acceptable, and what happens if people misuse it;
- Offer…
