Debate contribution: Artificial Intelligence and Online Violence Against Women and Girls

Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on 26 January 2026.

MLA

Ms Connie Egan

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

26 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Artificial Intelligence and Online Violence Against Women and Girls

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5341421

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome today's debate on the motion, because, every day, technologies utilising artificial intelligence facilitate online violence at an increasingly alarming rate. We know that it can happen to anyone — anybody can be a victim — but the evidence points to the fact that it is a gendered issue, particularly when we have data that reveals that 99% of victims of deepfake pornography are women and girls. The use of AI globally is providing fuel for campaigns of abuse at the click of a button and providing more opportunities than ever to undermine and attack women online for simply daring to exist. Motions on working together to end violence against women and girls have come to the Chamber on multiple occasions during the mandate. I thank my colleagues in the SDLP for tabling the motion in light of recent documented use of AI to perpetrate gender-based abuse. I also thank Cara for speaking out about her experiences. She was very brave to do so. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence can seem distant when viewed on a smartphone or laptop screen or read about in the news, but the creation of abuse such as deepfakes comes from a real person making a choice to harass, humiliate and attack and from making real people, more often than not women and girls, the victims of those choices, and they are then left to deal with the real-world consequences. My Alliance Party colleagues and I continue to support the motion's condemnation of:

"the creation and dissemination of non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes".

We need robust and strong action from all Governments — here in the Assembly, at Westminster and internationally — to safeguard people from the dangers of artificial intelligence. As the motion implies, artificial intelligence is being weaponised as a tool to demean and silence women, girls and other marginalised groups. The '2023 State of Deepfakes' report found that there had been a 550% increase in deepfakes from 2019 to 2023, with 98% of all deepfake videos online being explicitly pornographic. The grotesque use of AI in that way is nothing short of repulsive. Sadly, the creation of deepfakes is not the only use of AI for those who want to harm women and girls online, and we must find ways to keep legislative pace with quickly evolving technological advancements. Alliance welcomes the fact that the UK Government have recently made commitments to take action on the issue. Members from across the Chamber will be aware that sections of the Online Safety Act 2023 that legally compel social media companies to carry out an illegal content risk assessment for UK users came into force in March last year. The Online Safety Act also made it a priority offence to share or threaten to share intimate images of someone without their consent. Using software to generate sexual deepfakes became a criminal offence in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in June 2025. I question, however, why the UK Government only commenced that Act's provisions in January this year after incidents related to Grok and X, when there could have been a much more proactive instigation of the law. As a member of the Justice Committee, I recall the Minister's communication in the spring of last year, which highlighted the fact that that legislation was originally contained in Westminster's Crime and Policing Bill, on which she had been planning to bring a legislative consent motion. However, the relevant clauses in that Bill were withdrawn in the final stages and placed in the Data Act instead. The timeline of that and the particular clauses that had been placed in the Data Act meant, in part, that it was not possible for the legislation to be introduced in Northern Ireland as that was not the correct vehicle for doing so. I understand that the Committee was pleased to support the Minister's intention to bring in the provisions through an amendment to the Justice Bill at Consideration Stage to ensure that the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes of adults in Northern Ireland will become a criminal offence as soon as possible. I commend Minister Long for not allowing that legislation to fall through the cracks and her Department's team for working tirelessly at the last minute to ensure that the provisions are included as quickly as possible and in the most effective legislative vehicle. The use of AI in the targeting and harassment of women and girls is of extreme concern to my party colleagues and me. It is the victims who suffer the most when there are no consequences for such crimes. Action must be proactive and keep pace —

— with our growing technological world.

784 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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