In April 2025, Congress passed the Take It Down Act, a proposal that was seeking to criminalize the creation and sharing of intimate, non-consensual deepfakes. The new law "requires online platforms to remove these images within 48 hours of being reported," among other things, according to a release from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). In May 2025, the bill was officially signed into law by President Trump.
Deepfakes, and other forms of online sexual violence, like revenge porn, are known as "tech-enabled sexual abuse." This isn't a term you hear often, but you'll likely start to hear more, especially as AI continues to develop and be used more broadly.
“Tech-enabled sexual abuse is the next frontier in the fight against sexual violence,” said Scott Berkowitz, RAINN founder and president, in the statement. “I haven’t seen any form of abuse grow this quickly in RAINN’s 31 years, and this legislation is vital to stopping it.”
Below, we tell you exactly what tech-enable sexual violence is, some of the biggest misconceptions around it, and more.
It’s a range of actions and behaviors online that becomes abuse when "explicit content is created or shared without the subject’s consent,” according to RAINN. The org also emphasizes that porn doesn't fall into this category, since that is something adults can consent to and it can be distributed legally.
According to United Nations Population Fund (formerly named the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and still using the acronym UNFPA), there are about 10 different types of tech-enabled sexual violence. Below are some of the most common, including a brief description based on the UNFPA's glossary:
This is sharing intimate pictures without someone's consent.
This is blackmailing someone in exchange for not exposing their intimate photos
The word "porn" being in this is a misnomer because porn is something consenting adults can agree to. Revenge porn is a type of image-based abuse, and is more accurately called "non-consensual intimate imagery" or NCII, as RAINN calls it.
This is one of the most common lately, and involves putting someone else's face on another body, usually doing explicit acts. This is usually done with some sort of advanced AI face swapping tech, but it can also be done at a lesser degree, and when it is, it's called a "shallowfake."
According to Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, vice president of communications at RAINN, one of the biggest misconceptions of tech-enabled sexual violence is that it can happen to anyone. A lot of people think this is something that can and does only happen to celebrities who have tens of thousands of available photos online, she explains, but that's not the full scope anymore. "The technology has advanced so rapidly to be able to apply that same kind of swap technology on everyday people," she said. Yes, that's a bit alarming, but it's not meant to freak you out, but more so to keep you vigilant and aware. If you find yourself a victim of tech-enabled sexual abuse, here's what you can do:
The obvious difference is that tech-enabled sexual abuse is not a physical violation to someone's body; this type of abuse can happen and it "may not even be your body in the picture," explains Simmons Kaleba.
But this doesn't reduce the devastating impacts. "The same feelings that will accompany a standard sexual abuse case—like PTSD, shame, anxiety, and depression, to name a few—is also being applied to this," she says. "We're only starting to understand it in the same way that we're starting to understand the severity of it or the pervasiveness of it."
If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual violence, consider reaching out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or using the online chat feature at Hotline.RAINN.org. In a crisis, you can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to speak to a trained counselor. We’ve rounded up more mental health resources here.
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