Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 138: Creating, or requesting the creation of, purported intimate image of adult

Record GB-08 · 2025 c. 18, s. 138

Issued by: UK Parliament
Jurisdiction: United Kingdom
Level · region: National · Europe
Published / adopted: 2025-06-19
In force: 2026-02-06
Language: English
Official identifier: 2025 c. 18, s. 138

Summary

Inserts sections 66E-66H into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, making it an offence to create, or to request the creation of, a 'purported intimate image' of an adult without consent or reasonable belief in consent. This covers images that appear to be a photograph or film of the person but are not, such as sexually explicit deepfakes. It also extends prosecution time limits and allows deprivation orders.

Safety topics

deepfakes & synthetic mediaaccountability & liability

Scope

Borderline scope Not an AI-specific law: the offence covers any image that appears to be a photograph or film of a person but is not. Included as the UK's operative instrument against creating sexually explicit deepfakes; only section 138 of a general data law is recorded.

Status notes

The Act received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025. Section 138 was not in force at Royal Assent (s.142(1)); the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/31), made on 15 January 2026, brought it into force on 6 February 2026. The offences in new sections 66E and 66F of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 are triable only summarily and have a reasonable-excuse defence whose operation the Secretary of State must review in a report to Parliament within two years; section 66H allows prosecution within 3 years of the offence and 6 months of the prosecutor having sufficient evidence. Courts, including service courts, can deprive the offender of the image and anything containing it. Most of the Act is a general data law and out of scope; only section 138 is recorded here.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/18/section/138

Secondary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/31/made

Local copy

Archived. A linked PDF could not be downloaded (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/18/part/7/crossheading/purported-intimate-images/data.pdf: The site's robots.txt does not allow automated downloads of this page). A linked PDF could not be downloaded (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/18/section/138/data.pdf: The site's robots.txt does not allow automated downloads of this page). Last attempt 2026-10-17 20:42:16 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/GB-08/2026-10-11/official.html

Retrieved 2026-10-11 14:03:27 UTC

SHA-256 e148067ecfedef781d7d8c5137c9035b8af19de31f217667791d161f7d62864a

Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/GB-08/2026-10-11/secondary.html

Retrieved 2026-10-11 14:03:40 UTC

SHA-256 6b6b48661fb3a125840b950e09ffc4e7b1b99e1d1a7af42177792deb45d00347

Verification

The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-17 · official-url-fetched

Stored and read in this run: the legislation.gov.uk page of section 138 (latest revised version; heading, text, 'no known outstanding effects', commencement annotations I1 and I2) and the Commencement No. 5 Regulations, SI 2026/31 (stored as the secondary source; made 15 January 2026, regulation 2 and the explanatory note), snapshots of 11 Oct 2026, unchanged on 17 Oct; and, stored 17 Oct 2026, the Act's introductory text on legislation.gov.uk and the King's Printer PDF as enacted, both giving Royal Assent on 19 June 2025 and the enacting formula. Version 1's remark that the Online Safety Act 2023 already criminalised sharing such images is not in a stored file and was removed from the notes.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-17: 8 field(s) supported.

History

2026-10-18related: [{"slug": "uk-crime-and-policing-act-2026-ai-provisions", "id": "GB-09"}] → [{"slug": "uk-crime-and-policing-act-2026-ai-provisions", "id": "GB-09"}, {"id": — two-way link added: US-MN-01, US-NJ-01 link(s) to GB-082026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-17scope_note: – → Not an AI-specific law: the offence covers any image that appears to be a photog — added: a law that is not AI-specific but is the operative instrument for a deepfake question gets a scope_note (AGENTS.md section 10; compare US-FL-06 and US-FL-07)2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-17notes: The Act received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025. Most of it is a general data law → The Act received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025. Section 138 was not in force at R — Royal Assent on 19 June 2025 kept, now from the stored introductory text and PDF; the Online Safety Act remark removed (no stored source); commencement, summary-only penalties, the reasonable-excuse review, the time limit and deprivation orders added from the stored text2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-17date_last_updated: 2026-01-15 → – — 2026-01-15 was the day the commencement regulations were made, not an amendment of section 138; legislation.gov.uk shows no known outstanding effects and no amendment, so the field is empty and the commencement is in the notes2026-10-17-recheck-europe-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Crime and Policing Act 2026 (AI provisions) United Kingdom · Partially in force

Minnesota nudification technology ban (HF 1606) Minnesota (US) · In force

New Jersey deepfake penalties law (P.L.2025, c.40) New Jersey (US) · In force

Citation

UK Parliament. Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 138: Creating, or requesting the creation of, purported intimate image of adult [2025 c. 18, s. 138]. 2025-06-19. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/18/section/138. Status: In force; verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/GB-08/2026-10-11/official.html retrieved 2026-10-11 14:03:27 UTC, SHA-256 e148067ecfedef781d7d8c5137c9035b8af19de31f217667791d161f7d62864a. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record GB-08.

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