Sexualized Deepfake Abuse as Image-Based Sexual Abuse: A Scoping Review of Platform-Mediated Circulation and...

Sexualized deepfake abuse is increasingly understood as a form of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) whose harms develop through platform-mediated circulation. This scoping review examined 54 English-language peer-reviewed journal articles published between December 1, 2017, and January 13, 2026, identified through Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest. Legal and conceptual scholarship predominated. Victim-centered empirical and intervention research was comparatively sparse. Claims based on direct observation were separated from doctrinal legal analysis, conceptual reasoning, and arguments about institutional response. Across the corpus, terminology shifted from content-led labels such as "deepfake pornography" toward victim-centered language that situates the abuse within IBSA. Harm was traced across production, distribution, visibility, and recirculation and was characterized as multidimensional and cumulative, encompassing distress, stigma, potential relational and occupational consequences, self-censorship, and procedural burden. Misinformation-first and celebrity-centered frames often obscured everyday victimization and unequal access to remedy. The resulting cumulative harm and response model connects lifecycle stages, harm domains, and digital justice and identifies priorities for reducing reporting burden, limiting discoverability, and coordinating support. Direct evaluations of intervention effectiveness remain scarce.