Owning AI tech to create child sex abuse images to become criminal offence as reports of depraved pictures soar
1 February 2025, 22:01 | Updated: 1 February 2025, 23:49
Having AI tools to make images of child sexual abuse will become a criminal offence punishable by jail as part of a Government crackdown.
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The UK is set to be the first country in the world to make it illegal to own artificial intelligence tools designed to produce images of child sexual abuse.
Under the plans, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, offenders that own such AI tools could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Predators are using AI to ‘nudify’ real-life images of children by stitching their faces onto existing images of abuse, according to the government.
Fake images are also being used by vile paedophiles to blackmail children and force them to livestream further abuse.
Ministers believe that the online abuse can lead viewers to go out and offend in real life.
Ms Cooper said: "We know that sick predators' activities online often lead to them carrying out the most horrific abuse in person.
"This Government will not hesitate to act to ensure the safety of children online by ensuring our laws keep pace with the latest threats."
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Those who have been found to own AI ‘paedophile manuals’ could be jailed for up to three years under the measures, which will form part of the Crime and Policing Bill.
‘Paedophile manuals’ are instructions on how to create sexually explicit ‘deepfake’ photos and videos of child abuse.
The Bill will also introduce a specific offence for paedophiles who run websites to share child sex abuse, which could carry a 10-year prison sentence.
The law reforms come after warnings by the Internet Watch Foundation IWF that more and more sexual abuse images of children are being created.
The charity's latest data shows reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse images have risen by 380%, with 245 confirmed reports in 2024, compared with 51 in 2023.
The IWF found that over 3,500 new AI-generated images were uploaded to a single dark web forum in just ten months, and that the images were becoming more ‘hardcore’ in nature.
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Each of these reports can contain thousands of images.
The Border Force will also be given new powers to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse images from abroad, as officers will be allowed to call for people suspected of posing a risk to children to give up their phones for inspection.
The Home Secretary added: "These four new laws are bold measures designed to keep our children safe online as technologies evolve."
Some of the AI-generated content is so realistic that it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between what is real abuse and what is fake, the charity said.
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Derek Ray-Hill, interim chief executive of the IWF, said the steps "will have a concrete impact on online safety".
He added: "The frightening speed with which AI imagery has become indistinguishable from photographic abuse has shown the need for legislation to keep pace with new technologies.
"Children who have suffered sexual abuse in the past are now being made victims all over again, with images of their abuse being commodified to train AI models.
"It is a nightmare scenario and any child can now be made a victim, with life-like images of them being sexually abused obtainable with only a few prompts, and a few clicks."
