AI-GENERATED SEXUAL ABUSE: DEEPFAKE PORN AND NUDIFY APPS
The most common use of deepfake technology is not fraud or disinformation — it is sexual abuse. Independent analyses consistently find that the overwhelming majority of deepfake videos online are nonconsensual pornography, almost entirely targeting women and girls. The arrival of one-tap “nudify” apps has industrialized the harm, turning an ordinary photo into fabricated explicit imagery in seconds. This report documents the scale, the apps driving it, the youngest victims, and the laws now fighting back.
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Key takeaways
- →The dominant use of deepfakes: roughly 96–98% of deepfake videos online are nonconsensual pornography, and about 99% target women. (Home Security Heroes / DeepTrace)
- →Industrialized by apps: “nudify” tools have drawn tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions of downloads. (Tech Transparency Project)
- →Children are targeted: the IWF logged a 400% rise in AI child-abuse web pages in the first half of 2025. (IWF)
- →The law is responding: the US TAKE IT DOWN Act (2025) criminalized it; the DEFIANCE Act lets victims sue. (CNN / UC Law Review)
The defining use of deepfakes
When the term “deepfake” entered public awareness, the first and still dominant application was nonconsensual pornography. A 2019 DeepTrace study found 96% of online deepfake videos were pornographic and nonconsensual; a 2023 analysis by Home Security Heroes put the figure at 98%, with about 99% targeting women. The volume has climbed steeply — researchers counted 95,820 deepfake videos online in 2023, a 550% increase over 2019, and the number of pornographic deepfakes that year was 464% higher than in 2022. Victims range from roughly 4,000 female celebrities catalogued across the largest deepfake-porn sites to countless private individuals whose photos are scraped from social media.
“Nudify” apps industrialize the harm
What was once a technical undertaking is now a one-tap consumer product. As early as 2023, Graphika found 34 “nudify” providers drawing more than 24 million unique users in a single month. By 2025, researchers Mantzarlis and Lakatos counted 85 nudify sites pulling a combined ~18.5 million visitors over six months. A 2026 Tech Transparency Project review found nudify apps distributed through the Apple and Google app stores had amassed roughly 483 million downloads and over $122 million in lifetime revenue, while Telegram “nudify” bots in South Korea reached about 4 million monthly users by late 2024. The barrier to abuse has effectively dropped to a single uploaded photo.
“The barrier to abuse has effectively dropped to a single uploaded photo.”
The youngest victims
The same tools are used against children. The Internet Watch Foundation documented 210 web pages containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material in the first half of 2025 — a 400% increase over the same period in 2024 — part of a broader surge that saw AI-generated abuse videos rise from 13 in 2024 to 3,440 in 2025. School-age victims feature heavily: a 10-country survey found 2.2% of respondents had been personally victimized by such imagery. This is the harm driving the fastest legislative and platform response.
The legal counter-offensive
After years of lag, the law is moving. The US TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed May 19, 2025, made it a federal crime to knowingly publish nonconsensual intimate imagery — explicitly including AI deepfakes — with penalties up to three years in prison and a requirement that platforms remove flagged content within 48 hours; the first prosecutions followed in 2026. The DEFIANCE Act, passed unanimously by the US Senate in January 2026, adds a federal civil right for victims to sue creators, distributors, and knowing hosts. The push was catalyzed by high-profile incidents — the flood of nonconsensual Taylor Swift deepfakes on X in January 2024, and a 2023 case in Aledo, Texas, where students were targeted with manipulated images of classmates.
Frequently asked
What share of deepfakes are pornographic?
Independent studies consistently put it at roughly 96–98% of all deepfake videos online, with about 99% targeting women — making nonconsensual pornography by far the most common use of the technology.
What are “nudify” apps?
They are AI tools that fabricate explicit, nude images of a person from an ordinary clothed photo, without consent. They have become widely available through app stores and messaging platforms, amassing tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions of downloads.
Is creating or sharing AI nude images illegal?
Increasingly, yes. In the US, the TAKE IT DOWN Act (2025) made publishing nonconsensual intimate imagery — including AI deepfakes — a federal crime, and the DEFIANCE Act lets victims sue. Many US states and other countries have passed similar laws.
The AI Index (2026). AI-Generated Sexual Abuse: Deepfake Porn and Nudify Apps. Retrieved Jun 20, 2026, from report-ai.org/reports/dark-side-of-ai/ai-deepfake-porn-nudify-apps-statistics/