UK agencies warn parents on AI abuse of children’s images

The National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation warned parents and carers on Friday that children’s photos shared online can be manipulated into AI-generated sexual abuse material. Offenders are increasingly using openly available images of children to create realistic sexualised content.

A new campaign aimed at parents and carers across the United Kingdom is backed by adverts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The guidance urges safer sharing habits, including private accounts or close-friends groups, and tells adults to talk to children about image consent, deepfake nudes and what to do if they are targeted.

The Internet Watch Foundation found 3,440 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2025, compared with just 13 in 2024. The organisation also processed 245 actionable reports in 2024 containing AI-generated child sexual abuse images, up from 51 in 2023, and those reports involved more than 7,500 images and a small number of videos.

The material is illegal even when it is artificially created or manipulated, and it causes real harm to children whose images are used. Earlier guidance issued in 2025 for professionals working with children said AI child sexual abuse imagery should be treated with the same urgency as other child sexual abuse material.

In May 2026, school leaders were urged to review or remove identifiable pupil photos from websites and social media after criminals used those images to create sexually explicit AI pictures and then attempt blackmail.

The National Crime Agency had already said in April 2024 that generative AI and end-to-end encryption were making online child sexual abuse harder to tackle. It warned then that AI tools can generate vast volumes of illegal material in seconds, including imagery involving real children.