Tackling Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Designing new legislation and strategies to prosecute perpetrators, protect victims, and improve preventative measures

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Date of Event: Thursday, June 19th 2025

Time of Event: 9:30 AM — 1:00 PM BST

Place of Event: Webinar

In 2023 alone, the Revenge Porn Helpline reported nearly 19,000 cases of abuse, an increase from just 1,600 cases in 2019. Deepfake-related abuse has surged by 400% since 2017, with over 99% of these creations targeting women and girls. Child safety experts warn, furthermore, that AI is now being used to generate such volumes of sexually explicit images of children by predators that it is overwhelming the ability of the police to identify and rescue real-life victims.

In its general election manifesto, the Labour government pledged to halve levels of violence against women and girls within a decade, including by introducing specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force and using tactics normally reserved for terrorists and organised crime; introducing domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms so that victims can talk directly to a specialist, and ensuring there is a legal advocate in every police force area to advise victims from the moment of report to trial. Labour also committed to banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes, strengthen the use of Stalking Protection Orders and give women the right to know the identity of online stalkers, ensuring schools address misogyny and teach young people about healthy relationships and consent, and strengthening the rights of whistleblowers in the workplace in relation to sexual harassment. Furthermore, under government plans to update the Online Safety Act, the sharing of intimate images without consent will be made a ‘priority offence’ and social media firms will have to proactively remove and stop this material appearing on their platforms.

In September 2024, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, #NotYourPorn, GLAMOUR UK and Clare McGlynn, Professor of Law at Durham University launched a campaign to protect women online, led by Jodie* a survivor of deepfake sexual abuse. The campaign calls for a dedicated Image-Based Abuse law to protect women’s rights online and offline, with measures that: strengthen criminal laws on creating, taking and sharing intimate images without consent (including deepfakes); improve civil laws for survivors to take action against perpetrators and tech companies (including taking down abusive content); preventing image-based abuse through comprehensive relationships, sex and health education; funding specialist services that provide support to victims and survivors of image-based abuse; and creating an online abuse commission to hold tech companies accountable for image-based abuse. Planned new laws to address deepfake sexual abuse fell through due to the general election in 2024, meaning that the creation of such imagery remains legal, leaving women and girls at risk and survivors without a route to justice.

This symposium will provide an invaluable opportunity for stakeholders – including law enforcement officers, e-crime and e-safety professionals, charities, and others – to review existing legislation relating to IBSA, examine the new Labour government’s plans in this area, and discuss further ways to tackle and deter IBSA and assess what further measures could be implemented. Delegates will also explore methods to raise awareness of the harms of such abuse and develop strategies to support survivors.

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