The NSPCC has reported a startling 36% increase in online child sexual abuse in the last year, including a rise in the number of children being blackmailed by online predators with explicit, AI-generated images. It follows official advice given to schools to remove photographs of pupils from their websites, after blackmailers sent vile sexualised deepfakes of real children to an unnamed secondary school in the U.K.

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Cases like these are on the rise and point towards the same thing: an AI crimewave.

As a criminal defence solicitor specialising in sexual offences, I have already seen dozens of cases involving artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-generated imagery since these tools became mainstream three years ago.

Overwhelmingly, these relate to child sexual abuse and indecent images offences, with the alleged perpetrators ranging from naive teenagers generating images of teachers........

© LBC