IWF warning over use of AI-generated abuse images

Child protection experts warn AI technology is being used to generate new images of real victims of child sexual abuse

A leading child protection organisation has warned that abuse of AI technology threatens to "overwhelm" the internet.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) removes images of child sexual abuse from websites.

It says it has found thousands of AI-generated images which are so realistic they are criminal under UK law.

AI is being used to produce new images of real victims, de-age celebrities and unclothe children in ordinary photos to depict them in abuse scenarios.

"Our worst nightmares have come true," said Susie Hargreaves OBE, chief executive of Cambridge-based IWF.

"Chillingly, we are seeing criminals deliberately training their AI on real victims' images.

"Children who have been raped in the past are now being incorporated into new scenarios because someone, somewhere, wants to see it."

The IWF works to make the internet a safer place by identifying and removing global online child sexual abuse imagery

In a new study of a single dark web forum, the IWF found 2,978 images of abuse generated using artificial intelligence.

Half of them depicted children of primary school age, with some as young as two years old.

More than 560 images were classified as Category A - the most serious kind of imagery - including rape, sexual torture and bestiality.

In the UK, cartoons, drawings, animations and AI images are all criminal if they depict child abuse.

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Experts also found that the technology is being used to "nudify" children, whose clothed pictures had been uploaded to the internet for genuine reasons.

The most convincing imagery is now difficult for trained analysts to distinguish and, as the technology advances, the IWF warns it will pose "more obstacles" for them and the police.

The IWF has already found thousands of AI-generated abuse images that are criminal under UK law

Ian Critchley, National Police Chiefs' Council Lead for Child Protection, said: "It is clear that this is no longer an emerging threat - it is here, and normalises the rape and abuse of real children.

"AI has many positive attributes, and we are developing opportunities to turn this technology against those who would abuse it to prey on children."

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is hosting a global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park on 1 November.

Susie Hargreaves has once again urged him to put this issue at "the top of the agenda" and warned "if we don't get a grip on this threat, this material threatens to overwhelm the internet."

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