ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ටෙලිග්‍රෑම් නාලිකා ආශ්‍රිතව රූප පාදක (ඡායාරූප සහ වීඩියෝ) ලිංගික අපයෝජන හේතුවෙන් කාන්තාවන්ට සිදුවන බලපෑම පිළිබඳ අධ්‍යයනයක් - A Study on the Impact of Image-Based (Photo And Video) Sexual Abuse on Women in Sri Lankan Telegram Channels

Cyber Sexual and Gender Based Violence (CSGBV) and Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), including the non-consensual sharing of intimate photos and videos of women, has become a serious digital gender-based problem in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study examines the psychological, social and economic harm experienced by women due to image-based sexual abuse. This research was conducted using a Questionnaire developed based on Snowball Sampling and based on Survey data collected from 100 Women affected by Image-based sexual abuse in Sri Lanka. The findings of the research indicate that Image-based sexual abuse has caused significant psychological harm to women. It was found that 63% of the respondents had informed External parties about the incidents they had encountered, while 37% had not informed external parties. The main reasons for not informing external parties about Image-based sexual abuse were ‘fear of social stigma’, ‘low trust in authorities’ and ‘fear of discussing the matter in public’. Also, among the abusers, the categories of ‘former intimate partner’ and ‘not knowing the abuser’ were predominant, while ‘unknown parties’ and ‘online groups’ also represented a significant percentage. Also, the most commonly reported content shared was ‘social media photos’ (21.1%), ‘nude photos’ (14.6%) and ‘edited photos’ (12.2%), indicating that this abuse is not limited to nude content but can involve any Digital image. IBSA is a complex pattern of abuse that involves both power relations in personal relationships and anonymity in the cyber environment. Accordingly, IBSA in Sri Lanka causes  multidimensional harm that goes beyond psychological trauma and also includes social marginalization and Economic vulnerability. Therefore, these findings highlight the urgent need for strengthened legal frameworks, digital platform accountability and stakeholder-centered intervention mechanisms.