In a review of material posted on the dark web, the Internet Watch Foundation found that deepfakes featuring children were becoming more extreme.
The tools used to create the images remain legal in the UK, the Internet Watch Foundation says, even though AI child sexual abuse images are illegal.
Sexual predators are grooming children under six into performing “disturbing” acts of sexual abuse via phones or webcams a charity has warned.
Watchdogs say its a "stark vision of the future."
More children than ever are becoming victim of online sexual abuse, with technology offering abusers more access to them than ever.
The girl sent a photo to a boy in her class before the image and her phone number were added to all-male online chat groups - she later started disappearing before being abused by "unknown men".
"Law enforcement cannot arrest its way out of this problem."
Last year was the “most extreme year on record” for child sexual abuse online, UK based charity Internet Watch Foundation warned.
AI used to generate deepfake images of child sexual abuse uses photos of real victims as reference material, a report has found.
Sextortion is a form of blackmail in which a child is tricked into sending sexual images of themselves to abusers, who then threaten to share the pictures with friends, family or more widely on the internet if they are not paid money.
As new data shows EU servers are being targeted by criminals to host this imagery, EU legislators must pass vital new legislation to get a grip on the worsening situation and prevent the abuse of EU servers by criminals profiting off child sexual abuse imagery, writes Susie Hargreaves.
Paedophiles are using artificial intelligence (AI) to ‘de-age’ celebrities and create images of them as children.