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
More AI-generated child sex abuse material is being posted online
Published: Mon 22 Jul 2024
The amount of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) posted online is increasing, a report published Monday found.
The report, by the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), highlights one of the darkest results of the proliferation of AI technology, which allows anyone with a computer and a little tech savvy to generate convincing deepfake videos. Deepfakes typically refer to misleading digital media created with artificial intelligence tools, like AI models and applications that allow users to “face-swap” a target’s face with one in a different video. Online, there is a subculture and marketplace that revolves around the creation of pornographic deepfakes.
In a 30-day review this spring of a dark web forum used to share CSAM, the IWF found a total of 3,512 CSAM images and videos created with artificial intelligence, most of them realistic. The number of CSAM images found in the review was a 17% increase from the number of images found in a similar review conducted in fall 2023.
Read the full article at NBC News.
