🔗 Share this article

Tech firms and child protection organizations will receive permission to evaluate whether artificial intelligence systems can produce child exploitation images under new UK laws.

Significant Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Content

The declaration coincided with findings from a protection watchdog showing that cases of AI-generated CSAM have more than doubled in the past year, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Regulatory Framework

Under the changes, the government will allow designated AI companies and child protection organizations to inspect AI systems – the foundational technology for conversational AI and visual AI tools – and verify they have adequate protective measures to stop them from producing depictions of child sexual abuse.

"Fundamentally about stopping abuse before it occurs," declared the minister for AI and online safety, noting: "Experts, under rigorous protocols, can now detect the risk in AI models early."

Tackling Legal Challenges

The changes have been introduced because it is illegal to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI developers and others cannot create such images as part of a evaluation regime. Until now, officials had to delay action until AI-generated CSAM was published online before dealing with it.

This law is designed to averting that problem by enabling to halt the creation of those images at source.

Legal Structure

The changes are being added by the government as modifications to the criminal justice legislation, which is also establishing a prohibition on owning, producing or sharing AI models designed to create exploitative content.

Real-World Consequences

This week, the minister visited the London headquarters of Childline and heard a mock-up call to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based exploitation. The interaction depicted a adolescent seeking help after being blackmailed using a explicit deepfake of himself, constructed using AI.

"When I learn about children experiencing blackmail online, it is a cause of extreme frustration in me and rightful concern amongst parents," he stated.

Alarming Statistics

A leading online safety organization stated that cases of AI-generated exploitation material – such as webpages that may contain numerous files – had more than doubled so far this year.

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

• Female children were overwhelmingly victimized, making up 94% of prohibited AI depictions in 2025
• Portrayals of infants to toddlers rose from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Response

The law change could "represent a crucial step to ensure AI tools are safe before they are released," stated the head of the online safety organization.

"AI tools have enabled so survivors can be victimised repeatedly with just a simple actions, providing criminals the capability to create possibly endless amounts of sophisticated, lifelike exploitative content," she continued. "Content which additionally commodifies survivors' trauma, and renders children, especially female children, less safe on and off line."

Support Interaction Data

Childline also released details of counselling interactions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related risks discussed in the sessions comprise:

• Employing AI to rate weight, physique and appearance
• Chatbots discouraging young people from consulting safe guardians about harm
• Being bullied online with AI-generated material
• Online extortion using AI-faked pictures

During April and September this year, Childline conducted 367 support sessions where AI, chatbots and related terms were discussed, four times as many as in the same period last year.

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 interactions were connected with mental health and wellbeing, including utilizing AI assistants for assistance and AI therapy apps.