AI-Generated Child Abuse Images Surge 40% in First Half of 2026

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The Internet Watch Foundation reviewed 6,310 AI-generated images meeting the legal definition of child sexual abuse material in the first half of 2026 - 40% more than the total number of such materials from all of 2025, which stood at over 4,500.

The majority of reviewed images depicted girls. The 7 to 13 age group was dominant. IWF notes that the latest data covers only still images - the organization is simultaneously recording a sharp increase in the number of illegal AI-generated video materials, though these are not included in the cited figures.

Concerning data also relates to another tool. The Report Remove service, which blocks intimate images before they appear online, has already received 420 reports from children convinced that their likeness was faked or manipulated to create sexual materials. Last year’s result - 397 reports for the entire year - was exceeded before the halfway point of 2026.

Hannah Swirsky, Head of Policy at IWF, called on technology companies to take action.

“This problem has been created by technology and if companies don’t build tools that are safe by design, then the responsibility lies with them to build tools that cannot be abused in this way”

- Swirsky said, supporting parliamentary calls for binding AI regulation legislation.

Creating hyperrealistic CSAM using AI is a crime in the UK punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment. Adapting AI models to create such content or further distributing it is also illegal. Despite this, IWF emphasizes that criminal provisions alone are not enough and statutory obligations for companies to build safe models from the ground up are necessary.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government has not yet announced new AI-focused legislation. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan stated only that “nothing is ruled out,” and the criterion for any legislative proposal will be whether it makes British people safer. Meanwhile, the National Crime Agency together with IWF recommends parents remove or restrict access to children’s photos on social media - by setting accounts to private or sharing photographs only in groups of trusted friends.

// read moreDeepfakes: How to Defend Against AI-Generated Fake VideosMagazineHow to Keep a Character Consistent Across AI-Generated ImagesGuidesLawsuit Accuses xAI of Training Grok on Child Sexual Abuse MaterialNews

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