Source: Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) published on this website Friday 10 July 2026 by Jill Powell
Parents and carers are being alerted to the growing threat of children’s images shared online being manipulated into AI generated sexual abuse material.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) have seen an increase in online offenders exploiting openly available images of children to create realistic sexualised content.
IWF analysts found 3,440 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2025, compared to just 13 in 2024, and the NCA have increasingly seen offenders exploiting AI technologies to target children in new ways.
AI child sexual abuse material is illegal and causes real harm, even where an image has been artificially created or manipulated it contributes to the abuse and exploitation of children and can have a devastating impact.
In response to this real and growing threat, the IWF and NCA have launched a new campaign, supporting parents and carers to make informed decisions about their children’s images.
Adverts running on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, will help parents, carers, and others to consider image consent and actions they can take to better protect their children.
Alongside the social media campaign, the organisations have also issued new guidance for parents and carers, as concerns grow about criminals’ access to children’s imagery.
The guidance aims to help people find safe ways to share images of their children without risking them falling into the hands of those who may be looking to exploit them by using AI to create nude or sexual imagery.
It will also include advice on speaking to children and young people about AI and deepfake nudes and image consent, as well as what to do if they are targeted or imagery of them is made or shared online.
The new guidance states: “You may have already discussed image consent with friends, family and even within the places your child attends like schools and clubs.
“It can be helpful to revisit these conversations and involve your child, especially as they get older and start exploring new spaces online. Talk about how they feel about their photos being taken or shared, and help them to understand it’s okay to say no.”
When reviewing image consent for sharing of photography, parents and carers are asked to consider:
- Am I still comfortable with how my child’s images might be used?
- Have my preferences changed?
- Do I want to limit or withdraw consent?
- It’s ok to ask people not to post photos or videos of your child online
It also suggests creating a ‘close friends’ group for parents still wanting to share images online, or limiting visibility so only selected people can see them, as well as advice on speaking to children and young people about AI, ‘deepfake’ nudes and image consent and what to do if they are targeted or imagery of them is made or shared online.
This follows similar advice issued to education professionals by the IWF and the NCA last year, providing information on how to protect student images from AI manipulation.
The new advice comes after the IWF warned about criminal gangs who had targeted a school in the UK. The gang had taken imagery of the school’s pupils from a school website and, using AI, created more than 100 sexual images of the children.
They then tried to blackmail the school into paying to prevent the images being put online.
The IWF, which is the UK-based organisation working globally to remove and block child sexual abuse imagery from the internet, acted quickly to help make sure the images would be stopped from being uploaded - but fears remain that more schools could be targeted.
Kerry Smith, Chief Executive of the IWF, said:
“The threat is disturbing. If someone’s imagery is online, they could be easy pickings for criminals and anyone, especially children, could find themselves being targeted.
“We don’t want to say don’t share your children’s images with the people you love and trust, but we want everyone to be aware of the potential risks and make an informed decision with the full facts at their disposal. These are not hypothetical threats, they are real.
“The impact of this imagery can be devastating. The harms are very real. And the potential for lasting damage is something which I think every parent would do anything they can to prevent. We want to give them back that power, and start a public conversation about whether we should be sharing imagery online as a default.”
Tim Wright from the National Crime Agency said:
"Artificial intelligence tools are becoming more powerful, more widely available and easier to use, and we are seeing offenders exploit them to target children in new ways. Images shared online, even everyday family photos, can be stolen and manipulated to create sexualised content without a child or parent's knowledge.
“While we and policing colleagues tackle offenders, prevention remains vital. We encourage parents and carers to take a few simple steps today: review the privacy settings on social media accounts; think carefully about who can access images of their children; and talk openly with family, friends, schools and clubs about image sharing and consent. Most importantly, if something does go wrong, stay calm, reassure your child that they are not to blame, and report concerns to the police or CEOP so action can be taken as quickly as possible”
Images and videos of child sexual abuse are illegal in the UK whether they have been made with AI or not. The IWF warns AI-generated child sexual abuse is becoming more and more widespread, and is increasingly lifelike as technology improves.
- In 2025, the IWF identified 8,029 AI-generated images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse, a 14% increase in criminal AI content on the previous year.
- An additional 82 items were classed as prohibited, actioned under UK law even if the material is not photorealistic, such as cartoons, illustrations and animations.
- Of the 3,443 AI-generated child sexual abuse videos identified, which is a more than 260-fold increase on the 13 videos found in 2024, 65% were classified as Category A. This is the most severe legal category under UK law which encompasses offences such as rape, sexual torture and bestiality.
- By comparison, 43% of non-AI criminal videos seen by the IWF in 2025 were Category A – demonstrating that AI is being used to create more violent content.
The IWF says tech companies must evaluate and safeguard AI models before releasing them to make it harder for criminals to abuse AI image generators and create child sexual abuse imagery.
