Men reported experiencing the abuse at more than twice the rate of women, at 10.2% compared with 3.8%.
However, women reported more negative reactions and impacts, including fear for their safety and effects on their mental and physical health. This may reflect broader gender inequalities, stigma and safety risks that women disproportionately face.
Henry said the findings show that anyone can be affected by this abuse, but both the risk of experiencing it and its consequences are not evenly distributed.
“As generative AI becomes more widely available, there is greater potential for these tools to be misused to create, share or threaten to share intimate images without consent,” she said.
“What we don’t yet know is how quickly that is translating into increased victimisation.”
The latest findings, published in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, build on two earlier studies using the same international dataset.
One earlier study found that 3.2% of respondents reported creating, sharing or threatening to share AI-generated sexual images without consent.
Among those who shared the material, the most commonly reported motivation was “for fun or as a joke.”
Another study found that almost one in five adults had deliberately viewed AI-generated sexual images of real people, excluding those who did so solely to report or remove the material.
Henry said the findings strengthened the case for greater responsibility on technology companies to prevent AI-generated image-based abuse before it occurs.
“Australia’s proposed digital duty of care is an opportunity to shift the focus from responding to abuse after it happens to requiring online services to prevent foreseeable harm,” she said.
“But regulation and new laws are not enough. We also need better education, accessible support for victim-survivors, and greater responsibility on technology companies and developers to build safety into AI tools and apps from the outset.”
“We’ve worked with Google researchers for a long time to better understand this broader issue and identify where industry-wide prevention efforts are most needed.”
Co-author Dr Rebecca Umbach, Staff User Experience Researcher at Google, said the findings provided important new evidence about this form of abuse.
“Understanding who is experiencing AI-generated image-based abuse, how it occurs and the impacts it has on people is essential if we are going to design more effective prevention and responses,” Umbach said.
“Research that brings together academic and technology-sector expertise can help identify where interventions are most needed and how technology itself can be part of preventing harm.”
