Content leaks — nonconsensual intimate images, deepfakes, and pirated media — no longer sit at the margins of online harm data. Hotlines, law-enforcement agencies, and academic researchers across the UK, US, Australia, Canada, and South Korea have all published 2024–2026 figures showing the same direction: report volumes are climbing, AI-generated material is a growing share of the total, and enforcement is uneven across jurisdictions and platforms. This article walks through what the current data actually says.
1. The scale of removal infrastructure now in use
Hash-matching and hotline services built specifically for nonconsensual intimate imagery have grown fast enough that their own volume figures are now a proxy for how common leaks have become.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Images currently protected by StopNCII.org's hash-matching tool | 2 million images, up 97% year over year | SWGfL / StopNCII.org[1] |
| Total cases supported by StopNCII.org since launch | over 785,000 cases | SWGfL / StopNCII.org[1] |
| UK Revenge Porn Helpline reports handled in 2025 | nearly 25,000 reports, an 11% year-on-year increase | SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline[3] |
| Revenge Porn Helpline's first-decade totals (2015–2025) | 85,000 cases; over 450,000 images removed | SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline[3] |
2 million
images are now protected by StopNCII.org's hash-matching tool — up 97% from a year earlier.
SWGfL / StopNCII.org
“
2025 was the busiest year for the Revenge Porn Helpline since it launched in 2015 — case volume keeps climbing even as removal tooling gets faster.
”— SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline
2. What UK police data shows about reports and charges
England and Wales publish force-level statistics that let researchers track intimate image abuse cases from report through to prosecution outcome.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded intimate image abuse offences, 25 English/Welsh forces, 2021/22–2024/25 | up 26.9%, from 4,058 to 5,151 cases | Refuge (UK)[4] |
| Charging rate for the same offences over the same period | fell from 5.8% to 4.5% (4.8% overall; 1,047 charges from 21,905 offences) | Refuge (UK)[4] |
| Share of victims in the dataset who were women | 76.2% (15,564 cases) | Refuge (UK)[4] |
| Increase in "threats to share" intimate-image offences | 344% increase, 2021/22–2024/25 | Refuge (UK)[4] |
4.5%
was the average charging rate for recorded intimate image abuse offences in England and Wales — down from 5.8% four years earlier.
Refuge (UK)
“
Reports of intimate image abuse are rising faster than the justice system's ability to charge for it.
”— Refuge (UK)
3. Who is affected: prevalence research across three countries
Independent survey and academic research — separate from hotline case counts — gives a sense of how many people are targeted at some point, not just how many report it.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Share of nonconsensual pornography victims who are women (CCRI nationwide study) | 90% | Cyber Civil Rights Initiative[5] |
| Prevalence of NCP threats/victimization among US social media users (CCRI, n=3,044) | 1 in 8 targeted; 1 in 12 actually victimized | Cyber Civil Rights Initiative[5] |
| Global image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) prevalence, 2025 multinational study | more than 1 in 5 (22.6%) reported an IBSA experience | ACM CHI Conference (2025 study)[6] |
| Share of US adults who say explicit images of them were shared online without permission | 7% (12% of adults under 30 vs. 5% of adults 30+) | Pew Research Center[21] |
| Share of online Americans reporting a sensitive/nude image posted or threatened without permission | 4%, roughly 1 in 25 online Americans | Data & Society[24] |
1 in 8
US social media users report being targeted by nonconsensual pornography threats, per Cyber Civil Rights Initiative research.
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
“
Nonconsensual pornography victimization skews heavily toward women, but the underlying threat reaches a much broader share of social media users than headline case counts alone suggest.
”— Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
4. Piracy's scale: fewer visits, but organized revenue still large
Piracy tracking firms and law-enforcement-adjacent investigators measure a different slice of the same content-leak economy — unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted media at industrial scale.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global piracy-site visits tracked in 2025 | 185.6 billion visits, down 14.2% year over year (steepest annual decline since 2020) | MUSO[7] |
| Countries covered in MUSO's 2025 piracy analysis | 192 countries | MUSO[7] |
| Estimated annual revenue of a single dismantled European piracy network | $3.5 billion | Digital Citizens Alliance[19] |
185.6 billion
piracy-site visits were tracked globally in 2025 — still down 14.2% from the year before, the steepest decline since 2020.
MUSO
“
Large piracy operations increasingly resemble organized-crime enterprises rather than loosely run file-sharing communities.
”— Digital Citizens Alliance
5. Child sexual abuse material: record volumes, AI-driven growth
Reports involving minors are tracked separately by child-safety hotlines, and 2025 data from multiple independent networks shows both record volume and a fast-growing AI component.
| NCMEC CyberTipline total reports, 2025 | 21.3 million reports | NCMEC |
| NCMEC reports with a generative-AI nexus, 2025 | 400,000+ reports | NCMEC |
| NCMEC average daily financial sextortion reports | 137/day, up 37% YoY | NCMEC |
| IWF-confirmed CSAM reports, 2025 | 311,610 of 451,250 assessed | IWF |
| Commercial CSAM sites identified by IWF | 7,028 (2024) to 15,031 (2025) | IWF |
| Self-generated imagery share of IWF-actioned content | 140,276 of 512,980 items (27%) | IWF |
| AI-generated CSA video increase assessed by IWF | 260-fold increase; 8,029 items assessed | IWF |
| INHOPE-processed suspected CSAM records, 2024 | 2,497,438 records, up 218% YoY | INHOPE |
| Share of INHOPE 2024 records confirmed illegal | 65% (1,634,636 URLs), up 202% YoY | INHOPE |
Commercial CSAM sites identified by IWF
21.3 million
reports were filed to NCMEC's CyberTipline in 2025, including more than 400,000 with a generative-AI nexus.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
“
Analysts confirmed a case of child sexual abuse material roughly once every 101 seconds in 2025.
”— Internet Watch Foundation
Sources for this section: NCMEC[8], IWF's annual report[9], IWF's hashing-insights data on self-generated imagery[10], and INHOPE's 2024 annual report[16].
6. Youth exposure: nearly half of teens report online sexual harm
Thorn's youth-focused research and South Korean police data both point to minors as a disproportionately affected group, both as targets and, in deepfake cases, as suspects.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Teens (9–17) reporting some form of online sexual harm in 2025 | approximately 1 in 2 (45%) | Thorn[11] |
| Share of 9–17-year-olds shown someone else's nudes without consent | 1 in 6 | Thorn[11] |
| Share of 9–17-year-olds who report sharing their own nude imagery | 1 in 11 (some figures cite 1 in 9) | Thorn[11] |
| Suspects arrested for deepfake sex crimes in South Korea, Jan–Oct 2024 | 474 arrested (921 reports filed); 80.4% were teenagers | Korean National Police Agency[25] |
45%
of teens ages 9-17 reported some form of online sexual harm in 2025, including deepfake nudes and nonconsensual sharing.
Thorn
“
Nearly half of teenagers surveyed had a direct encounter with online sexual harm — not a hypothetical risk, a common one.
”— Thorn
7. Deepfakes: incident volume overtaking prior years
Multiple independent trackers show deepfake incident counts growing faster than piracy or leak volumes overall, with explicit content as a leading use case.
| Deepfake incidents, Q1 2025 vs. all of 2024 | 179 vs. 150 (up 19%) | Surfshark |
| Celebrity-targeted deepfake incidents, Q1 2025 vs. 2024 | 47 vs. prior year total (up 81%) | Surfshark |
| Deepfake case growth, 2017-2022 baseline to 2024 | 22 cases to 150 incidents (up 257% from 2023) | Surfshark |
| Primary use categories for celebrity deepfakes | 38% fraud, 26% explicit content, 4% political | Surfshark |
| Projected deepfakes circulating, 2025 vs. 2023 | ~8 million vs. 500,000 | Surfshark |
| Unique deepfake videos identified in a 2023 audit | 95,820 videos, up 550% YoY; 98% pornographic | Security Hero |
~8 million
deepfakes were projected to be circulating in 2025, up from roughly 500,000 in 2023.
Surfshark (citing UK government sources)
“
Explicit content remains the single largest use case for deepfake material targeting public figures.
”— Surfshark
Sources for this section: Surfshark's deepfake research[12] and Security Hero's State of Deepfakes report[20].
8. Extortion and financial sextortion complaints climb
Sextortion — extortion using real or fabricated intimate material as leverage — shows up consistently across law-enforcement and hotline datasets as a fast-growing subcategory.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FBI IC3 extortion complaints, 2025 vs. 2023 | 89,129 vs. 48,223 (nearly double) | FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center[13] |
| NCMEC average daily financial sextortion reports | 137/day, up 37% year over year | NCMEC[8] |
| Share of male victims' Revenge Porn Helpline cases involving sextortion | 53%, with 82.6% of those perpetrators identified as criminal gangs | SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline[3] |
89,129
extortion complaints were logged by the FBI's IC3 in 2025 — nearly double the 48,223 reported in 2023.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
“
Extortion complaint volume has nearly doubled in two years, with sextortion schemes a recurring driver.
”— FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
9. Regulatory responses and reporting hotlines worldwide
Outside the UK and US, national regulators and tiplines in Australia, Canada, and the UK's Ofcom show the same reporting growth, alongside active platform-level investigations.
| Reports to Australia's eSafety image-based abuse scheme, 2018/19-2022/23 | 849 to 9,060 reports (up 960%) | eSafety Commissioner |
| Sexual-extortion reports to eSafety's scheme, same period | 432 to 6,187 reports (up 1,332.2%) | eSafety Commissioner |
| Adult Australians reporting a nude/sexual image shared without consent | 1 in 10 adults (1 in 5 women aged 18-45) | eSafety Commissioner |
| Police-reported online child sexual exploitation incidents, Canada, 2024 | 16,905 incidents, down 16% from 2023 | Statistics Canada |
| NCDII incidents involving victims 17 or younger, Canada, 2024 | 488 incidents (6.4 per 100,000 youth, down 3%) | Statistics Canada |
| NCDII-specific reports to Canada's national tipline, 2024 | 271 of 29,505 total reports (up ~8% YoY) | Cybertip.ca |
| Platforms under active Ofcom Online Safety Act investigation | nearly 100 platforms, including X over Grok-generated sexual imagery | Ofcom (UK) |
960%
was the increase in reports to Australia's eSafety image-based abuse reporting and removal scheme between 2018/19 and 2022/23.
eSafety Commissioner (Australia)
“
Sexual-extortion reports grew even faster than image-based abuse reports overall — more than a thirteen-fold increase in four years.
”— eSafety Commissioner (Australia)
Sources for this section: eSafety's scheme insights[14], eSafety's national survey[15], Statistics Canada[17], Cybertip.ca[18], and Ofcom[22].
10. Enforcement gap: not all removal requests are treated equally
A controlled audit and the Revenge Porn Helpline's own data both point to a persistent gap between how quickly platforms act on copyright claims versus nonconsensual-nudity claims.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Takedown outcomes on X for identical images: DMCA vs. non-consensual-nudity reports (21-day audit) | 100% removal (25/25) for DMCA vs. 0% removal (0/25) for NCII reports | Harvard-affiliated researchers (arXiv preprint)[23] |
| Share of UK intimate-image-abuse reports where victims did not report to police | only 4%; 76% of those who did described a negative experience | SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline[3] |
| Removal rate achieved by the Revenge Porn Helpline in 2025 | 94%+ on over 20,800 images reported | SWGfL / Revenge Porn Helpline[3] |
| Individual images removed by the Revenge Porn Helpline since 2015 | over 300,000 images, 90%+ removal rate | Revenge Porn Helpline / StopNCII.org[2] |
0%
of non-consensual-nudity reports resulted in removal over 21 days in a controlled audit — versus 100% for identical images reported as copyright infringement.
Harvard-affiliated researchers, arXiv preprint
“
The same image, reported under two different policies, produced opposite outcomes — one path worked every time, the other worked none of the time.
”— Harvard-affiliated researchers, arXiv preprint
Key figures at a glance
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| StopNCII.org images protected | 2 million (+97% YoY) |
| UK Revenge Porn Helpline 2025 reports | ~25,000 (+11% YoY) |
| UK intimate image abuse charging rate | 4.5% (down from 5.8%) |
| Global IBSA prevalence (2025 study) | 22.6% |
| MUSO global piracy visits (2025) | 185.6 billion (-14.2%) |
| NCMEC CyberTipline reports (2025) | 21.3 million |
| IWF commercial CSAM sites | 7,028 → 15,031 (2024→2025) |
| Teens reporting online sexual harm | 45% |
| Deepfakes projected in circulation (2025) | ~8 million |
| FBI IC3 extortion complaints (2025) | 89,129 |
| eSafety image-based abuse report growth | +960% (2018/19-2022/23) |
| DMCA vs. NCII takedown rate (audit) | 100% vs. 0% |
Sources
Sources
- 1. StopNCII.org protects 2,000,000 images online ↩
- 2. StopNCII.org ↩
- 3. Revenge Porn Helpline handles record number of cases in 2025 ↩
- 4. Refuge: Intimate image abuse research ↩
- 5. Cyber Civil Rights Initiative — CCRI 1-pager ↩
- 6. ACM CHI 2025 — Image-based sexual abuse prevalence study ↩
- 7. MUSO 2025 Piracy Trends and Insights Report ↩
- 8. NCMEC CyberTipline Data ↩
- 9. IWF Annual Data & Insights Report 2025 ↩
- 10. IWF — Self-generated imagery hashing insights ↩
- 11. Thorn — 2025 Youth Perspectives on Online Safety ↩
- 12. Surfshark — Deepfake statistics ↩
- 13. FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report ↩
- 14. eSafety — Insights from the image-based abuse reporting and removal scheme ↩
- 15. eSafety — Image-based abuse national survey summary report 2017 ↩
- 16. INHOPE Annual Report 2024 ↩
- 17. Statistics Canada — Police-reported online child sexual exploitation, 2024 ↩
- 18. Cybertip.ca — Reports from the public processed, 2024 ↩
- 19. Digital Citizens Alliance — Global piracy networks as organized crime ↩
- 20. Security Hero — State of Deepfakes ↩
- 21. Pew Research Center — Other types of negative experiences online ↩
- 22. Ofcom — Investigation into X over Grok sexualised imagery ↩
- 23. arXiv — Reporting Non-Consensual Intimate Media ↩
- 24. Data & Society — Nonconsensual Image Sharing, 2016 ↩
- 25. Korea Herald — Deepfake sex crime arrests via Korean National Police Agency ↩