IWF finds 6,310 AI‑generated child sexual abuse images — 40% increase
IWF found more photorealistic AI‑generated child sexual abuse images in early 2026 than in all of 2025; calls grow for new AI rules.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK‑based organisation that tracks the global spread of abuse material, has identified 6,310 AI‑generated images that meet the legal definition of child sexual abuse — a jump of 40 percent compared with last year’s total of more than 4,500.
Photorealistic images surge; videos rising too
IWF analysts say the number of photorealistic child sexual abuse materials produced with artificial intelligence discovered in the first half of 2026 already exceeds the total recorded throughout 2025. Most of the images the organisation reviewed depicted girls and children aged seven to 13 years.
According to the foundation, AI‑created child sexual abuse content has been increasing for several years, with especially sharp growth observed in video material — even though the agency’s latest figures cover static images only.
Experts and child‑protection campaigners are calling for new legal safeguards specific to artificial intelligence. The IWF says the figures underline the need for tighter rules and stronger obligations on technology firms to prevent misuse of their tools.
The government of Andy Burnham has not announced a new law focused on the technology. Kanisha Narayan, the UK’s minister for artificial intelligence, said no option is off the table when it comes to new regulation, but that the yardstick for any legislative proposal will be “whether it will make British citizens safer?”
Hannah Swirski, head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation, supports MPs’ calls for a mandatory AI law that would compel companies to develop safer models: "It is the obligation of tech companies to create tools that cannot be abused in this way," she said.
In the UK, AI‑generated child sexual abuse material is illegal. The government has also banned fine‑tuning models to produce abusive content and the distribution of such models; developing a model designed to produce hyper‑realistic child sexual abuse material carries a criminal penalty of up to five years in prison.
Photo: Philip Hermogenes Calderon / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
