🔗 Share this article

Technology companies and child safety agencies will be granted authority to assess whether artificial intelligence tools can generate child exploitation material under new UK laws.

Substantial Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Material

The announcement came as findings from a protection monitoring body showing that cases of AI-generated CSAM have more than doubled in the past year, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

Updated Legal Structure

Under the amendments, the authorities will allow approved AI developers and child protection organizations to inspect AI models – the foundational 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 the minister for AI and online safety, adding: "Experts, under strict conditions, can now identify the danger in AI models early."

Tackling Regulatory Obstacles

The changes have been introduced because it is against the law to produce and possess CSAM, meaning that AI creators and other parties cannot create such content as part of a evaluation process. Until now, officials had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was published online before addressing it.

This law is designed to preventing that issue by helping to halt the creation of those images at source.

Legal Structure

The amendments are being added by the government as modifications to the crime and policing bill, which is also establishing a ban on owning, creating or sharing AI models developed to create exploitative content.

Practical Impact

This recently, the official toured the London base of a children's helpline and listened to a mock-up call to advisors featuring a account of AI-based abuse. The call depicted a teenager seeking help after being blackmailed using a sexualised AI-generated image of himself, constructed using AI.

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

Alarming Data

A prominent internet monitoring organization reported that cases of AI-generated exploitation material – such as webpages that may contain multiple images – had significantly increased so far this year.

Cases of category A content – the gravest form of exploitation – increased from 2,621 images or videos to 3,086.

• Female children were overwhelmingly targeted, accounting for 94% of illegal AI images in 2025
• Depictions of newborns to two-year-olds increased from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Industry Reaction

The legislative amendment could "constitute a vital step to guarantee AI tools are secure before they are released," commented the chief executive of the online safety organization.

"Artificial intelligence systems have made it so victims can be targeted all over again with just a few clicks, giving criminals the ability to create potentially limitless amounts of advanced, lifelike exploitative content," she added. "Content which additionally commodifies survivors' trauma, and makes young people, especially girls, less safe on and off line."

Counseling Session Data

Childline also released details of counselling sessions where AI has been referenced. AI-related risks mentioned in the conversations include:

• Using AI to rate body size, body and appearance
• Chatbots discouraging children from talking to safe guardians about abuse
• Being bullied online with AI-generated content
• Online blackmail using AI-faked pictures

Between April and September this year, Childline conducted 367 counselling sessions where AI, conversational AI and related topics were mentioned, four times as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Fifty percent of the references of AI in the 2025 sessions were connected with psychological wellbeing and wellness, encompassing using AI assistants for support and AI therapeutic applications.