Score: 2

Prevalence and Impacts of Image-Based Sexual Abuse Victimization: A Multinational Study

Published: March 6, 2025 | arXiv ID: 2503.04988v1

By: Rebecca Umbach, Nicola Henry, Gemma Beard

BigTech Affiliations: Google

Potential Business Impact:

Helps stop harmful sharing of private pictures.

Business Areas:
Visual Search Internet Services

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the nonconsensual creating, taking, or sharing of intimate images, including threats to share intimate images. Despite the significant harms of IBSA, there is limited data on its prevalence and how it affects different identity or demographic groups. This study examines prevalence of, impacts from, and responses to IBSA via a survey with over 16,000 adults in 10 countries. More than 1 in 5 (22.6%) respondents reported an experience of IBSA. Victimization rates were higher among LGBTQ+ and younger respondents. Although victimized at similar rates, women reported greater harms and negative impacts from IBSA than men. Nearly a third (30.9%) of victim-survivors did not report or disclose their experience to anyone. We provide large-scale, granular, baseline data on prevalence in a diverse set of countries to aid in the development of effective interventions that address the experiences and intersectional identities of victim-survivors.

Country of Origin
πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ United States, Australia

Page Count
20 pages

Category
Computer Science:
Computers and Society