AI, Exploitation and Digital Harm
Each month, we highlight an issue where trafficking and mental health intersect. This January, the focus has been artificial intelligence and digital exploitation.
ARTICLE
1/31/20261 min read
Across media and policy discussions, one topic dominates: the rise of AI-generated deepfake images, often used to create non-consensual and sexualised material. While the technology is new, the harm is not. Trafficking — both physical and digital — continues to disproportionately affect women and children.
In addition to global data and policy discussions, the real-world consequences of AI misuse are already being felt close to home. Our Development Director, Shirin Tinnesand, has also written publicly on this issue, highlighting how emerging technologies are being weaponised in ways that existing legal frameworks struggle to address.
The article describes how deepfake AI technology was used without consent to create explicit material depicting someone the author knows, demonstrating how easily such tools can be misused — and how quickly this form of abuse can become normalised, even in everyday social settings.
Through this example, the article exposes a significant legal and ethical gap: existing legislation in Norway and elsewhere has not kept pace with technological developments, leaving individuals — particularly women and children — insufficiently protected against non-consensual digital sexualisation. Tinnesand argues that when technology outpaces regulation, new forms of exploitation emerge, with serious consequences for dignity, safety and mental health.
The piece underscores why AI-enabled abuse cannot be treated as a fringe issue, but must be understood as part of the wider landscape of digital violence, exploitation and trafficking, demanding both stronger legal frameworks and a clearer societal response.
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Humans for Humans
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Oslo, Norway