Social, legal, and ethical implications of AI-Generated deepfake pornography on digital platforms: A systematic literature review

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The rapid development of AI has fuelled the spread of deepfake pornography synthetic content that realistically fakes an individual's identity without their consent. This phenomenon has complex social, legal, and ethical implications, particularly related to privacy violations, sexual exploitation, and legal vulnerabilities. This study aims to analyze the social impacts of deepfake pornography, identify existing legal gaps, and evaluate the ethical and regulatory responses that have emerged globally. Using the SLR approach, this study adopts the PICOS framework and PRISMA methodology in the screening and selection of scientific publications. The study finds that the majority of victims, especially women and vulnerable groups, experience psychological, social, and professional harm. Barriers to access to justice are exacerbated by weak legal frameworks, limited capacity of law enforcement officers, and gender bias in legal protection. The absence of a specific legal definition widens the scope for exploitation and exacerbates social inequality. The study recommends comprehensive legal reforms, including criminalization of non-consensual deepfake content, obligations for digital platforms in content moderation, and adoption of technologies such as watermarking (visible and invisible), C2PA standards-based metadata labelling, and advanced AI detection to track synthetic media. Regulatory initiatives such as the California AI Transparency Act, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the EU AI Act, and the UK Online Safety Act 2023 show the direction of international law development. In addition, public education about the dangers of deepfakes and their legal consequences is an important part of prevention efforts. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates technological, legal, and ethical aspects is needed to build an adaptive and fair protection system in the digital era. • Develops an ethical framework addressing privacy, consent, and trust in AI-generated deepfake pornography. • Identifies vulnerable victims and assesses societal impacts. • Conducts bibliographic analysis to map literature trends and identify research gaps. • Evaluates legal gaps and proposes regulatory improvements. • Fills research gaps by focusing specifically on deepfake pornography ethics.