AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Images Surge 40%, 2026 Half-Year Figures Top Entire 2025 Total

AI-generated child sexual abuse material is proliferating online, with the volume of illegal images investigated in 2026 already surpassing the total recorded last year, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).

Analysts at the UK-based organisation, which monitors child sexual abuse material globally, found more photorealistic AI-generated abuse material in the first half of 2026 than during the whole of 2025. The IWF said it assessed 6,310 AI-generated images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse material, 40% more than last year’s total of over 4,500, The Guardian reports.

Majority Of Images Depicted Girls

Instances of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have been increasing for several years, including a sharp rise in videos. However, the latest IWF figures relate only to still images.

The majority of images assessed by analysts depicted girls and children aged seven to 13.

The findings have prompted the IWF to reiterate its call for statutory regulation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s AI minister, has said “nothing is off the table” when it comes to further regulation, but that any legislative proposal would be judged on the question: “Will it make the British people safer?”

IWF Calls For Binding AI Legislation

Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the IWF, backed calls from parliamentarians for “binding legislation on AI” that would require companies to develop safer models.

“It is incumbent on tech companies to build tools which cannot be abused this way,” she said.

AI-generated child sexual abuse material is illegal in the UK. The government has also made it illegal to adapt an AI model to create such material or distribute such models to others.

Developing a model designed to produce hyper-realistic child sexual abuse material carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

A government spokesperson said: “UK law is clear that child sexual abuse material is illegal, regardless of whether it is AI-generated or not. We are going further by banning AI models that are used to create this type of abuse material and produce sickening, hyper-realistic imagery that often contains the likeness of real children.”

Reports Of Manipulated Images Rise

AI tools have also enabled online predators to create explicit images depicting children.

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Report Remove, a service that blocks intimate images from appearing online, has received 420 reports from children concerning images of themselves that they believed had been faked or manipulated to appear explicit. The figure has already surpassed the 397 reports recorded in 2025.

Parents Urged To Limit Children’s Photos Online

The use of AI tools to create abuse material has prompted the National Crime Agency and the IWF to encourage parents and guardians to avoid posting pictures of their children publicly on social media.

The guidance recommends making social media accounts private or sharing pictures of children only through a “close friends” group.