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Technology companies and child safety organizations will be granted authority to evaluate whether artificial intelligence systems can produce child abuse images under new UK legislation.

Significant Increase in AI-Generated Illegal Content

The announcement came as findings from a safety monitoring body showing that reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have increased dramatically in the past year, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Legal Structure

Under the changes, the government will allow approved AI companies and child protection groups to inspect AI systems – the foundational systems for chatbots and visual AI tools – and ensure they have sufficient protective measures to prevent them from producing images of child exploitation.

"Ultimately about preventing exploitation before it happens," declared Kanishka Narayan, adding: "Specialists, under strict conditions, can now identify the risk in AI models early."

Tackling Regulatory Challenges

The amendments have been implemented because it is against the law to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI developers and other parties cannot create such content as part of a testing regime. Until now, authorities had to delay action until AI-generated CSAM was uploaded online before dealing with it.

This legislation is designed to preventing that issue by helping to halt the production of those images at their origin.

Legal Structure

The amendments are being introduced by the authorities as revisions to the criminal justice legislation, which is also establishing a prohibition on possessing, creating or distributing AI models designed to create exploitative content.

Practical Impact

This recently, the official toured the London headquarters of a children's helpline and heard a mock-up conversation to counsellors involving a report of AI-based exploitation. The interaction portrayed a teenager seeking help after being blackmailed using a explicit AI-generated image of themselves, constructed using AI.

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

Concerning Statistics

A prominent online safety foundation reported that instances of AI-generated abuse content – such as online pages that may include multiple images – had more than doubled so far this year.

Cases of the most severe content – the gravest form of exploitation – increased from 2,621 visual files to 3,086.

• Girls were predominantly victimized, accounting for 94% of prohibited AI images in 2025
• Portrayals of infants to toddlers rose from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Response

The legislative amendment could "represent a vital step to ensure AI products are secure before they are launched," stated the head of the online safety organization.

"Artificial intelligence systems have made it so survivors can be targeted all over again with just a few clicks, providing criminals the ability to make potentially endless amounts of sophisticated, lifelike child sexual abuse material," she added. "Content which further commodifies victims' suffering, and makes children, especially girls, less safe both online and offline."

Support Interaction Information

The children's helpline also released information of support interactions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related harms mentioned in the sessions include:

• Employing AI to evaluate weight, body and looks
• Chatbots discouraging children from talking to safe adults about abuse
• Being bullied online with AI-generated material
• Online blackmail using AI-faked pictures

Between April and September this year, the helpline delivered 367 counselling sessions where AI, conversational AI and related terms were mentioned, four times as many as in the same period last year.

Half of the references of AI in the 2025 sessions were connected with mental health and wellness, encompassing utilizing AI assistants for assistance and AI therapy applications.