The U.K. is forging ahead with plans to make the act of creating sexually explicit "deepfake" images a specific criminal offence.

The British government on Tuesday announced it will criminalize the creation and sharing of so-called deepfake content amid a proliferation of the sexually explicit images and videos online.

Creating and sharing sexually explicit "deepfakes" will become a criminal offence in Britain, the government said on Tuesday, in a bid to tackle a surge in the proliferation of such images, mainly targeting women and girls.

Led by Prime Minister and Labour Party boss Keir Starmer, new measures are designed to crack down on "vile online abuse."