UK Tech Companies and Child Protection Agencies to Examine AI's Ability to Create Abuse Images

Technology companies and child protection organizations will be granted permission to assess whether AI systems can generate child exploitation images under recently introduced British laws.

Substantial Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Material

The declaration coincided with revelations from a safety monitoring body showing that cases of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have more than doubled in the past year, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

Updated Regulatory Structure

Under the amendments, the authorities will permit designated AI companies and child protection organizations to inspect AI systems – the underlying technology for chatbots and visual AI tools – and ensure they have sufficient safeguards to prevent them from producing depictions of child exploitation.

"Fundamentally about preventing exploitation before it happens," stated Kanishka Narayan, adding: "Specialists, under strict conditions, can now identify the risk in AI systems early."

Tackling Regulatory Challenges

The changes have been implemented because it is against the law to create and own CSAM, meaning that AI creators and other parties cannot create such images as part of a evaluation process. Previously, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was uploaded online before dealing with it.

This legislation is designed to averting that issue by helping to halt the production of those images at source.

Legislative Structure

The amendments are being added by the authorities as modifications to the criminal justice legislation, which is also establishing a prohibition on owning, producing or distributing AI systems developed to generate child sexual abuse material.

Practical Impact

This week, the minister visited the London headquarters of a children's helpline and heard a mock-up call to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based exploitation. The call depicted a teenager requesting help after being blackmailed using a sexualised deepfake of himself, created using AI.

"When I learn about children experiencing extortion online, it is a cause of extreme anger in me and justified anger amongst families," he stated.

Concerning Data

A prominent internet monitoring organization stated that instances of AI-generated exploitation content – such as webpages that may contain multiple images – had more than doubled so far this year.

Instances of category A content – the most serious form of abuse – rose from 2,621 visual files to 3,086.

• Female children were overwhelmingly targeted, making up 94% of illegal AI depictions in 2025
• Portrayals of infants to two-year-olds rose from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Industry Reaction

The legislative amendment could "constitute a vital step to ensure AI products are secure before they are released," stated the chief executive of the internet monitoring organization.

"Artificial intelligence systems have enabled so survivors can be targeted repeatedly with just a few clicks, giving offenders the ability to create potentially endless amounts of sophisticated, lifelike exploitative content," she added. "Material which additionally commodifies survivors' suffering, and renders children, especially female children, more vulnerable on and off line."

Support Session Data

The children's helpline also published information of counselling interactions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related risks mentioned in the sessions comprise:

• Employing AI to rate weight, physique and appearance
• AI assistants discouraging young people from consulting safe adults about abuse
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated content
• Digital extortion using AI-faked images

Between April and September this year, Childline conducted 367 support sessions where AI, conversational AI and related topics were discussed, four times as many as in the same period last year.

Half of the references of AI in the 2025 interactions were related to psychological wellbeing and wellness, including using chatbots for support and AI therapeutic applications.