27 June 2025, 11:12

By Derek Ray-Hill

It has never been easier to create child sexual abuse imagery.

Not only are we finding more webpages containing videos of children suffering sometimes the most extreme forms of sexual abuse available on the internet with a few clicks – but this material can now be created, using AI, of any child out there, whether or not they have suffered sexual abuse.

This is why the IWF and NCA have issued urgent guidance today to schools up and down the country to help them take action against this worsening epidemic.

Children are being targeted and their photos, shared innocently on the internet or with friends, are being harvested by online criminals who are transforming them into nude and sexual imagery. There are even apps available which allow people to conjure up sexual imagery of real children from their phone, as easily as they can order their shopping. The fact is that it is just too easy, and it is having a devastating impact on children and young people.

The resulting imagery can get passed around the darkest corners of the internet – it can be abused by criminals running scams to blackmail children – it can be used as a grooming tool, or can result in horrendous bullying.

AI-generated child sexual abuse content is a rapidly increasing threat. The IWF, the UK hotline dedicated to finding and removing child sexual abuse material from the internet, processed 245 reports in 2024 which contained........

© LBC