'Matilda' star Mara Wilson breaks silence on AI's 'deepfake apocalypse' after being abused

Mara Wilson has voiced concerns on how the cast of Stranger Things is getting caught in the “deepfake apocalypse.”

In an op-ed for The Guardian newspaper, the 38-year-old American actress wrote that artificial intelligence will exploit everyone, including child stars and young actors, if it is not regulated without proper monitoring.

Wilson went on to open up about her own experience of being “used for child s**ual abuse material,” that made her anxious about the safety and integrity of other actors, such as the stars of Stranger Things and Disney films.

She penned, “Before I was even in high school, my image had been used for child s**ual abuse material (CSAM). I’d been featured on fetish websites and Photoshopped into p****graphy.”

The Matilda star shared, “Grown men sent me creepy letters. I wasn’t a beautiful girl – my awkward age lasted from about age 10 to about 25 – and I acted almost exclusively in family-friendly movies. But I was a public figure, so I was accessible. That’s what child s**ual predators look for: access. And nothing made me more accessible than the internet.”

Wilson admitted that it was a crushing experience and she does not want any kid to go through it.

She added, “It was a painful, violating experience; a living nightmare I hoped no other child would have to go through. Once I was an adult, I worried about the other kids who had followed after me. Were similar things happening to the Disney stars, the Strangers Things cast, the preteens making TikTok dances and smiling in family vlogger YouTube channels?”

Notably, The House of Magic alum’s fear has become reality as X (previously Twitter) users asked AI tool Grok to disrobe a 14-year-old actress Nell Fisher, who portrayed Holly Wheeler in Stranger Things.

However, Elon Musk’s company later released a statement assuring that it would stop Grok from “allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.”

“Generative AI has reinvented stranger danger. And this time, the fear is justified. It is now infinitely easier for any child whose face has been posted on the internet to be s**ually exploited. Millions of children could be forced to live my same nightmare,” Mara Wilson wrote.