AI tools have put child sexual abuse ‘on steroids’, Home Secretary warns
The Home Office said fake images are being used to blackmail children and force them to livestream further abuse.
2 February 2025
IWF In The News
IWF warning over use of AI-generated abuse images
Published: Wed 25 Oct 2023
A leading child protection organisation has warned that abuse of AI technology threatens to "overwhelm" the internet.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), external removes images of child sexual abuse from websites.
It says it has found thousands of AI-generated images which are so realistic they are criminal under UK law, external.
AI is being used to produce new images of real victims, de-age celebrities and unclothe children in ordinary photos to depict them in abuse scenarios.
"Our worst nightmares have come true," said Susie Hargreaves OBE, chief executive of Cambridge-based IWF.
"Chillingly, we are seeing criminals deliberately training their AI on real victims' images.
"Children who have been raped in the past are now being incorporated into new scenarios because someone, somewhere, wants to see it."
Read the full article at BBC News.
