The girl said no. Then AI was used to humiliate her

A boy created AI-generated naked images of a girl and used them to cyberbully her after she rejected him, in what Malta’s online abuse helpline says is part of a growing pattern of misogynistic behaviour among young people.

Davina Marie Muscat, Safer Internet Centre coordinator at BeSmartOnline, said the case reflected a wider problem: some boys feeling entitled to girls’ attention and reacting aggressively when rejected.

“A closer look at the cases we handle reveals a recurring and deeply concerning pattern,” she said. “A sense of entitlement felt by some young males towards girls and women – and the harmful, sometimes dangerous behaviour that follows when that entitlement goes unchallenged.”

Online misogyny, which refers to the demeaning, sexualising and harassment of girls and women in digital spaces, is a growing concern internationally.

While BeSmartOnline does not record cases under a standalone category of “misogyny”, which does not exist as a crime, the trends are evident.

In 2024, BeSmartOnline carried out 949 helpline interventions. In 2025, that figure remained consistently high at 951.

Cyberbullying was the largest category, accounting for 20% of all cases. Non-consensual sharing of intimate images – sometimes known as “revenge porn” – made up 10.2% of cases. “Potentially harmful content” accounted for a further 10.1%, grooming for 7.6%, and issues relating to love, relationships and sexuality online for a significant additional share.

“Taken together, these are precisely the categories where gender-based harm tends to be most concentrated – and where misogynistic behaviour, whether explicit or not, most frequently surfaces.”

She went on to give examples.

The girl simply said ‘no’

“In one case that came to our attention, a girl simply said ‘no’. She declined a boy’s request to go out with him. What followed was not acceptance – it was retaliation. The boy created AI-generated nudified images of her and used them to cyberbully her, deliberately targeting her reputation and dignity online.”

In another case, a boy went to a girl’s school and physically harassed her as she was trying to leave to go home. Again, the trigger was rejection.

The escalation from online entitlement to real-world confrontation is a pattern that professionals working in this space are increasingly alert to ‒ and one that underscores why online behaviour cannot be viewed in isolation from offline harm, she said.

This sense of entitlement is not limited to how some young men treat girls their own age.

“During one of our school intervention sessions, a teenage boy became increasingly aggressive towards one of our own lecturers – a woman – simply because she attempted to pause him in order to give him accurate information.”

Muscat said what they are seeing in Malta is consistent with what researchers and child protection organisations are documenting internationally: a rise in technology-facilitated gender-based abuse among young people, driven in no small part by online content and influencer culture that frames the demeaning of women and girls as entertainment, humour or even masculine identity.

“The algorithms that govern social media platforms continue to serve young people – particularly adolescent boys – content that normalises misogynistic attitudes. The consequences of this do not stay on screen. They walk into schools, into relationships, and into our helpline,” she said.

Awareness, she said, is the first step. Parents, educators  and young people themselves need open, honest conversations about what respect looks like online – and what it does not. Schools have a critical role to play in embedding digital literacy and gender respect into their programmes. And platforms must be held to account for the content they amplify.