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Technology companies and child safety organizations will be granted authority to evaluate whether AI systems can generate child abuse material under recently introduced UK legislation.

Significant Increase in AI-Generated Harmful Material

The announcement came as revelations from a safety monitoring body showing that reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have increased dramatically in the past year, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

Updated Legal Framework

Under the changes, the authorities will permit approved AI companies and child safety groups to examine AI systems – the foundational systems for conversational AI and image generators – and ensure they have adequate safeguards to prevent them from creating depictions of child exploitation.

"Fundamentally about preventing exploitation before it occurs," stated the minister for AI and online safety, noting: "Specialists, under rigorous conditions, can now identify the risk in AI systems promptly."

Tackling Legal Obstacles

The changes have been introduced because it is illegal to produce and possess CSAM, meaning that AI creators and other parties cannot create such images as part of a testing regime. Until now, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was published online before dealing with it.

This legislation is aimed at preventing that problem by enabling to halt the production of those images at source.

Legal Structure

The changes are being added by the government as revisions to the crime and policing bill, which is also establishing a ban on owning, creating or sharing AI models developed to create exploitative content.

Practical Impact

This recently, the minister visited the London base of a children's helpline and listened to a simulated conversation to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based abuse. The call depicted a adolescent seeking help after facing extortion using a explicit deepfake of himself, constructed using AI.

"When I learn about children facing extortion online, it is a cause of extreme anger in me and justified anger amongst parents," he said.

Alarming Statistics

A leading internet monitoring organization stated that cases of AI-generated abuse content – such as webpages that may include numerous images – had significantly increased so far this year.

Instances of category A content – the gravest form of abuse – increased from 2,621 images or videos to 3,086.

• Female children were overwhelmingly victimized, accounting for 94% of illegal AI images in 2025
• Portrayals of newborns to toddlers increased from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Response

The legislative amendment could "represent a crucial step to ensure AI products are safe before they are launched," commented the chief executive of the internet monitoring foundation.

"Artificial intelligence systems have enabled so victims can be targeted all over again with just a simple actions, giving offenders the ability to create potentially limitless quantities of sophisticated, photorealistic exploitative content," she continued. "Content which additionally exploits victims' suffering, and makes young people, particularly female children, more vulnerable both online and offline."

Counseling Interaction Data

Childline also published information of support interactions where AI has been referenced. AI-related risks mentioned in the sessions comprise:

• Employing AI to rate body size, physique and looks
• AI assistants discouraging children from talking to trusted guardians about abuse
• Being bullied online with AI-generated material
• Online extortion using AI-faked images

During April and September this year, Childline conducted 367 counselling interactions where AI, chatbots and associated topics were discussed, four times as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 interactions were connected with psychological wellbeing and wellbeing, including using chatbots for support and AI therapy apps.