Criminalization of AI-Based Sexual Deepfakes in Indonesian Criminal Law: The Urgency of Victim Protection in the Generative AI Era

Sexual deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed image-based sexual abuse by enabling realistic intimate depictions of identifiable persons who never participated in the depicted acts. This study examined whether Indonesian criminal law, as applicable after the national Criminal Code took effect on 2 January 2026, adequately criminalized the non-consensual creation and circulation of AI-generated sexual representations and protected victims. The study addressed a gap in Indonesian scholarship by evaluating the post-2026 interaction among the Criminal Code, the Sexual Violence Crime Law, the Personal Data Protection Law, and the amended Electronic Information and Transactions Law, while comparing recent European Union and United Kingdom approaches. A normative legal method was used with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, supported by thirty recent Scopus-indexed journal articles published in 2022-2026. The analysis found fragmented protection: pornography provisions can reach circulation but do not clearly capture private creation; electronic sexual violence provisions presuppose recording, transmission to a recipient, or electronic stalking; and personal-data offences protect data processing rather than sexual autonomy as such. The study proposes a technology-neutral offence covering intentional creation and solicitation of synthetic intimate depictions without consent, with separate and aggravated liability for distribution, threats, monetization, repeated conduct, and child victims. It contributes a victim-centered model that treats the primary protected interests as sexual autonomy, dignity, and digital identity, rather than deception alone.