JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Imagine being sent a pornographic photo of yourself, only it isn’t actually you in the photo.
That is exactly what happened to former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s then-16-year-old daughter.
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Brooke spoke out publicly for the first time since she fell victim to a new artificial intelligence crime two years ago in an exclusive on-camera interview with Action News Jax.
She was just 16 at the time, playing pickleball with friends.
“I just finished the game and gone back to my phone and my phone was flooded with notifications. Basically, people reaching out saying this kid that I didn’t know had taken a photo off my Instagram and through AI-generated fake nudes and posted it to his Snapchat story for everyone to see,” Brooke said.
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Brooke was humiliated as the images spread like wildfire among her peers.
“I had people that I didn’t know and that I did know reaching out saying, like, ‘Hey, I think this kid accidentally leaked this photo of you.’ And then that’s when I had to be like, ‘No, it’s not real. I don’t know who this kid is.’ Kind of just defend my reputation and my side,” Brooke said.
She tried to reach out to the original poster directly and even his parents but got no response. Eventually, she told her parents.
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“I was pretty upset. I won’t use the word I want to use,” former Mayor Curry said.
The Currys decided to press charges, and in the end, the teen who made the pictures pleaded guilty.
But the damage had already been done.
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“Multiple people got their hands on it, screenshotted it, and to this day I don’t know who has it,” Brooke said.
Creating and posting pornographic AI images of people is already a crime in Florida, but Brooke soon found out as far as social media platforms are concerned, there’s no teeth in the law to ensure the content is taken down.
“Ninety-nine percent of deepfake pornography depicts women and the Department of Homeland Security has said it is a clear and present danger to the public and to society in general,” State Representative Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville) said.
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Duggan is leading the charge to help victims take back some control, sponsoring “Brooke’s Law” this legislative session.
The bill lays out how victims can petition social media companies to have unauthorized AI-generated content of themselves removed from the platforms, and allows victims to sue if the companies don’t comply.
“You never get out from under it. And that’s what we need to provide for these mostly very young women who are facing this trauma,” Duggan said.
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Until now, the Brooke behind Brooke’s Law was anonymous, but during the bill’s last stop in the House, she shared her story publicly for the first time.
“I am very proud of her for coming out and sort of reliving it and bringing it up to help other people and to sponsor this bill, and putting her story with the bill, I think helps quite a bit,” Brooke’s mother, Molly, said.
Now, with the bill teed up for final votes in both chambers, Brooke and her family can look towards the future knowing they were able to take a horrible situation and generate positive change to help all victims moving forward.
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“Get your parents involved, get the people around you that love you and care about you involved, as Brooke has done, take back control of yourself,” former Mayor Curry said.
“I’m very lucky to have them with connections because a normal person doesn’t have that,” Brooke said. “And that’s why I want to go out and give my story and make people aware that you can take back control.”
Duggan told Action News Jax he expects the bill could make it to the Governor’s desk as early as next week.
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