Teach digital ethics with digital literacy

WHAT do we do with a 16-year-old teen who used AI-assisted deepfake technology to allegedly generate lewd pictures of his classmates that he sold online?

It isn’t just a case of juvenile delinquency; it’s a stark illustration of the urgent need for Malaysia to confront the threat posed by deepfake technology that allows anyone with basic digital skills and access to the Internet to create content that can be used to harass and blackmail people, to manipulate identities, to create very convincing misinformation that could easily stoke negative emotions, not to mention commit all sorts of financial crimes.

The teen’s case is being investigated under Section 292 of the Penal Code for the sale, distribution, or circulation of obscene materials, and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) for sharing offensive and inappropriate content.

But is this enough?

Legal experts and other authorities are saying that the rapid evolution of digital technology has outpaced our laws.

Existing legislation, primarily focused on traditional forms of pornography and cybercrime, are struggling to keep pace with rapid advancements in AI – and AI makes advances in weeks and months, not years, as demonstrated by the increasing sophistication of older models as well the development of new ones like China’s DeepSeek.

While Malaysia has cybercrime legislation in place, including under the CMA and the Penal Code, these laws are lagging behind the sophistication of new digital crimes like deepfake pornography.

When AI allows someone to take an ordinary photo of a person and “undress” him or her and create pornography, issues like digital consent and privacy need much more precise definitions and legislation.

Penalties must also be more robust. Because cybercrimes are committed virtually, society seems to view them as lesser somehow – but the consequences of such crimes are very real and their perpetrators should face commensurate punishment.

We also need to teach children and teens this lesson, that virtual crime hurts people IRL.

Would that teen have done something similar a couple of decades ago with a camera? Perhaps. Perhaps it’s a flaw in his character. But it’s an undeniable fact that digital technology, especially something as powerful as AI, makes it much easier to commit crimes.

Which is why we need to teach the younger generation that cyberbullying is more than just words on a screen, they cause pain, and sometimes even death when a targeted person commits suicide, as some have done in Malaysia. That deepfake manipulated images are not just something to laugh over, that they can cause humiliation and mental health issues, and yes, suicides too.

The rather dimly viewed Moral Studies is not going to cut it. We need specific modules that teach “ethical AI use, the importance of consent, and the real-world consequences of misusing technologies such as deepfakes”, as Dr Wu Shin Ling succinctly put it in her letter that was published in The Star yesterday.

Over the last few years there have been many exhortations by experts that parents and educators must work together to protect children from the threats that exist online – and to that we add a call for adults to also teach children the terrible hurt that can be felt in real life by the misuse of digital technology, including everything from AI and social media to chat groups.

The case in Johor is a wake-up call.