Overview
- On Saturday the WDR talk show Kölner Treff featured Mareile Höppner and Charlotte Engelhardt publicly describing how AI tools have been used to create and distribute fake nude and pornographic images of them.
- Engelhardt said her then-ten-year-old son was shown images that placed her head on pornographic bodies, which shocked him even after he recognised the pictures as fake.
- Höppner reported that nearly every photo of her from the past 30 years has been turned into sexualised deepfakes and that many criminal complaints she filed were closed with no further action.
- Both women described online forums where users exchange techniques for making and spreading deepfakes and urged clearer labelling of AI content, stronger platform measures, and better police responses.
- Their revelations follow similar reports by other presenters and add to a wider debate in Germany about how to protect victims, limit abusive online subcultures, and require platforms to identify synthetic sexual material.