🔗 Share this article

Technology companies and child safety agencies will receive permission to evaluate whether artificial intelligence systems can generate child exploitation material under new UK legislation.

Substantial Increase in AI-Generated Harmful Content

The declaration came as revelations from a safety monitoring body showing that reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have increased dramatically in the last twelve months, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

Updated Legal Framework

Under the changes, the government will allow designated AI companies and child safety organizations to examine AI models – the underlying systems for chatbots and visual AI tools – and ensure they have sufficient protective measures to prevent them from creating images of child sexual abuse.

"Ultimately about preventing exploitation before it occurs," declared the minister for AI and online safety, noting: "Experts, under rigorous conditions, can now detect the risk in AI models promptly."

Tackling Legal Challenges

The changes have been introduced because it is against the law to produce and possess CSAM, meaning that AI creators and others cannot generate such content as part of a testing regime. Until now, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was published online before dealing with it.

This legislation is aimed at preventing that problem by enabling to stop the creation of those materials at their origin.

Legislative Framework

The changes are being added by the authorities as modifications to the crime and policing bill, which is also establishing a ban on possessing, producing or distributing AI systems developed to generate child sexual abuse material.

Practical Impact

This week, the minister toured the London headquarters of a children's helpline and heard a mock-up conversation to advisors featuring a report of AI-based abuse. The call portrayed a adolescent seeking help after facing extortion using a sexualised deepfake of themselves, constructed using AI.

"When I hear about children facing blackmail online, it is a cause of intense frustration in me and rightful anger amongst parents," he said.

Concerning Data

A prominent internet monitoring foundation reported that cases of AI-generated exploitation content – such as webpages that may include numerous files – had more than doubled so far this year.

Instances of the most severe content – the most serious form of exploitation – increased from 2,621 visual files to 3,086.

• Girls were overwhelmingly victimized, accounting for 94% of prohibited AI depictions in 2025
• Portrayals of newborns 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 tools are safe before they are released," commented the head of the online safety foundation.

"Artificial intelligence systems have enabled so victims can be victimised all over again with just a few clicks, giving offenders the ability to make possibly endless amounts of advanced, lifelike child sexual abuse material," she continued. "Material which additionally commodifies victims' suffering, and makes children, especially female children, more vulnerable on and off line."

Support Session Information

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

• Using AI to evaluate body size, physique and looks
• Chatbots dissuading children from talking to safe adults about harm
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated content
• Online extortion using AI-manipulated images

Between April and September this year, the helpline conducted 367 counselling interactions where AI, conversational AI and related terms were discussed, significantly more as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 sessions were connected with psychological wellbeing and wellbeing, including utilizing chatbots for assistance and AI therapeutic apps.