What it means

• For victims: It means a profound and lasting loss of bodily autonomy, digital safety, and privacy. The damage is a form of sexual abuse that is difficult to undo, as images, once on the internet, are nearly impossible to completely remove. Victims are often forced to take on the emotional and logistical burden of reporting and attempting to have the content "taken down."

• For women and girls: The pervasive threat creates a chilling effect, causing many to limit their presence online, restrict what photos they share, and live with an underlying fear of their image being exploited. This is a significant setback for gender equality in digital spaces.

• For society: The phenomenon signals a serious crisis in which AI technologies have outpaced law. It points to legal gaps, with many jurisdictions criminalising the distribution of intimate images but not their creation, leaving victims unable to seek justice against the original fabricator. The ease of creating "on-demand" sexual images also reinforces a cultural problem of sexual objectification and entitlement, undermining the necessity of consent and genuine human connection.