Associated Incidents
When Bree Smith watched the state Senate vote on a bill banning "intimate" deep fakes online, she had her sons, ages 11 and 7, sitting next to her.
Smith, a popular meteorologist who parted ways with NewsChannel 5 earlier this year, advocated for the bill because she has been the victim of someone putting her face on a "semi-nude body" and posting it online. Imposters also created fake videos posted online that make it appear she was asking for money from fans.
So how has Smith explained her advocacy for state laws banning deep fakes, semi-nude or otherwise, to her young children?
"Well, it's been really difficult. Because you know as a parent, I do my best to protect my kids from inappropriate things that happen on the internet," she said in a April 22 telephone interview.
"My children do not know what and have never been exposed to any sort of intimate kind of imagery," she said. "And so, going through this as a parent has been kind of this impossible journey of not protecting them against content that I don't want them to see, but now content that may be associated with their mother."
Smith said she told her sons she was bullied online.
"That somebody took Mommy's face and, without her permission, made it look like it wasn't Mommy. And that's not allowed. People are not allowed to take your picture and use the internet or use AI to make it look you're doing something you never did or behaving in a way you never did.
"And right now, that's not illegal in Tennessee. So Mommy's trying to make it illegal for people to use your picture without your permission."
Smith said she avoided any discussion about her face appearing on someone else's semi-nude body.
"It's a tightrope to walk. I think all parents get that," she said. "You don't need to trip into the unanswered questions and accidentally open some sweeping vortex of darkness that is totally age inappropriate.
"At the end of the day," she said she told them, "it's not OK to call somebody names, it's not OK to distort somebody's image. It's not OK to pretend to be somebody that you're not.
"And those are things," she said, "they understand."