Fake Images. Real Victim. No Prison.

Apparently, you can manufacture sexually explicit images of a young woman, distribute them online without her consent, and still avoid spending a single night in prison.

What a fucking message to send.

William Hamish Yeates received a sentence of two years and three months but was released on a three-year recognisance order. He will serve no prison time. Not one day. Not an hour. Surely, they could have had him in there for a night or two; just find out about unwanted sexual advances!

Because calling something a “deepfake” can make it sound like a clever technical trick. A bit of computer fiddling. Some pixels rearranged by rearranged by a young bloke who got carried away.

There is a real person attached to that face.

A person who never agreed to become pornography. Who now has to wonder who saw it, who saved it, and whether it will turn up again.

According to the court reporting, his victim first saw her Year 12 graduation photograph on a pornography website. She continues to fear the material resurfacing and requires psychological support. A milestone she should have been able to celebrate became entangled with someone else’s abuse.

Sit with that for a moment.

You finish school. You should be looking at your graduation photos with your family. Instead, someone has taken your face and turned it into material for strangers to consume.

And somehow, you’re the one left carrying the humiliation.

The judge considered Yeates’s youth, diagnoses, guilty plea, remorse, treatment and prospects of rehabilitation. Those are relevant considerations. I can acknowledge them and still believe the outcome was inadequate.

I want him rehabilitated. I also want a consequence that reflects the gravity of what he did; let him know he fucked up... Big time.

And I am thoroughly sick of online communities where degrading women becomes a way for men to impress one another. What a pathetic little achievement: earning approval from strangers by violating someone who never consented to any of it.

The technology may be sophisticated. The entitlement is prehistoric.

Women should be able to post a photograph, graduate from school and exist in public without some fuckwit deciding their face is his raw material.

In my view, this offending warranted actual prison time.

Because the images were fabricated.

The harm wasn’t.

It's moment like these that I'm glad I'm old and missed all this shit!

Since When did Having a Camera Become a Qualification?

When did pointing a phone at yourself become a public service?

Somewhere along the way, we started calling people “influencers” because “person who films themselves buying things/doing stuff” apparently didn’t sound impressive enough.

Now we’ve got people setting up tripods in busy walkways, making strangers wait while they get the perfect shot, and treating restaurant staff like unpaid extras in their personal television show. Dickhead, they’re trying to serve lunch. Move your fucking ring light.

Then there’s the manufactured excitement.

“SO many of you have asked about my skincare routine!”

Have they? Or has a company offered you money to hold a jar beside your face? Or like the guy yesterday, putting flies in the case and taking a photo.

Every product is life-changing. Every hotel is a dream. Every meal is “literally the best thing ever.” Until next Tuesday, when a different company pays for a fresh revelation.

And the entitlement. Asking a small business for free food in exchange for “exposure” takes some nerve. Try paying your electricity bill with exposure. See how long the lights stay on.

Yes, there are creators who are funny, talented and useful. They put work into something people enjoy. But the ones who confuse an audience with authority—and attention with importance—could do with a long afternoon away from their own reflection.

Having followers doesn’t make you an expert. Owning a microphone doesn’t make every thought worth broadcasting. And filming yourself doing a good deed doesn’t automatically make you a saint; sometimes it just makes the person receiving help part of your marketing.

Pay for your lunch. Buy your own moisturiser. Let strangers walk past.

The world will survive without the footage.

An Extra Fly, a Bloody Big Responsibility

What a fucking irresponsible way to treat someone’s livelihood.

Food creator Julzyy reportedly admitted that an AI tool added an extra fly to an image used in his review of Kings Fresh Burek. Fuckwit. Everyone wants to be an influencer! Fuck!

He maintains his original complaint was genuine. The family disputes what the original footage shows.

Here’s my problem: once you know your image contains something that wasn’t there, you cannot expect people to trust it as evidence. Correct it clearly. Give that correction the same prominence as the accusation.

People absolutely have the right to criticise a food business. Small businesses aren’t above scrutiny. But reviewers deserve scrutiny too, especially when their posts can put customers off walking through the door.

An apology means very little if you still brush aside the seriousness of publishing altered material. Someone else has to deal with the consequences long after viewers have scrolled on.

Behind that counter are people paying bills, working early mornings and trying to keep their business going. They deserve accuracy.

If you want the influence that comes with an audience, grow up and accept the bloody responsibility.

You Don’t Have to Like Politicians...

I’m not mad on politicians. But reading what happened to Helen Haines made me feel bloody sick.

A woman went to work and suffered injuries so horrific that both her legs had to be amputated. Her family, her staff and everyone who rushed to help now have to live with what happened outside her electorate office.

Nobody should need reminding that politicians are human beings. They have families. They have lives outside the arguments, headlines and parliamentary bullshit. Taking public office does not mean signing away your right to come home safely.

The circumstances of the alleged attack are before the courts. But there is nothing complicated about this principle: no grievance, political or otherwise, gives anyone the right to inflict violence on another person.

The candlelight vigils around Australia were a welcome show of compassion. People coming together for Helen and her family, regardless of how they vote.

You can dislike a politician. You can criticise their decisions, challenge their policies and vote them out. That’s democracy.

A woman losing both her legs should horrify every one of us. She shouldn’t have to be someone you voted for before you give a damn.

Cost of Living

It sucks.