The UK Government is to make creating sexually explicit deepfake images a criminal offence in an attempt to curb the proliferation of online abuse which most often targets women and girls.

Perpetrators could face up to two years behind bars under new offences for taking an intimate image without consent, installing equipment to enable these offences, as well as sharing the resultant images.

The Government said that the new laws will deliver on manifesto commitments to protect women and girls from the creation of hyper-realistic sexual images, marking a crackdown on this behaviour and making it clear there is no excuse for creating a sexually explicit deepfake of someone without their consent. 

“It is unacceptable that one in three women have been victims of online abuse,” said the victims minister, Alex Davies-Jones.

“These new offences will help prevent people being victimised online. We are putting offenders on notice – they will face the full force of the law.”

While it is already an offence to share – or threaten to share – an intimate image without consent, it is only an offence to take an image without consent in certain circumstances, such as upskirting.

Alongside existing rules of sharing intimate images without consent, it is hoped the new laws will give law enforcement a comprehensive package of offences to effectively tackle non-consensual intimate image abuse, including the creation of deepfakes.

The Government said that the new rules follow action taken in September 2024 which added sharing intimate images without consent as priority offences under the Online Safety Act, making it the responsibility of platforms to root out and remove this type of content – or face enforcement action from Ofcom.

Baroness Jones, technology minister, said: “The rise of intimate image abuse is a horrifying trend that exploits victims and perpetuates a toxic online culture.

“With these new measures, we’re sending an unequivocal message: creating or sharing these vile images is not only unacceptable but criminal. Tech companies need to step up too – platforms hosting this content will face tougher scrutiny and significant penalties.”

Research from Ofcom previously found that over a six month period, 43% of those aged 16 and older had encountered a deepfake online, as well as 50% of those aged 8-15, while a 2023 report from Security Hero found a 550% increase in deepfake videos from 2019 to 2023, with deepfake pornography making up 98% of all deepfake videos online, 99% of which targets women.

Strikingly, recent research from Internet Matters found that more than half of teenagers now think it would be worse to have a deepfake nude created and shared of them than a real image.

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The rapid rise in AI technology means that deepfakes are becoming easier to generate and disseminate, with lawmakers and campaigners increasingly voicing their concerns.

“Intimate-image abuse is a national emergency that is causing significant, long-lasting harm to women and girls who face a total loss of control over their digital footprint, at the hands of online misogyny,” said Jess Davies, television presenter and campaigner.

“Women should not have to accept sexual harassment and abuse as a normal part of their online lives, we need urgent action and legislation to better protect women and girls from the mammoth scale of misogyny they are experiencing online.”