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Technology companies and child safety organizations will receive authority to evaluate whether AI tools can produce child exploitation images under new UK legislation.

Significant Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Content

The announcement came as findings from a protection watchdog showing that reports of AI-generated CSAM have increased dramatically in the past year, rising from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Regulatory Structure

Under the changes, the authorities will allow designated AI companies and child safety groups to inspect AI models – the foundational technology for conversational AI and visual AI tools – and verify they have sufficient protective measures to stop them from creating depictions of child exploitation.

"Fundamentally about stopping exploitation before it occurs," declared Kanishka Narayan, noting: "Experts, under rigorous protocols, can now identify the risk in AI models promptly."

Tackling Legal Challenges

The changes have been implemented because it is illegal to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI developers and others cannot generate such images as part of a evaluation regime. Until now, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was published online before addressing it.

This law is aimed at averting that issue by helping to stop the production of those images at source.

Legislative Structure

The changes are being added by the government as revisions to the crime and policing bill, which is also implementing a ban on possessing, creating or distributing AI systems designed to create exploitative content.

Real-World Impact

This recently, the official visited the London headquarters of Childline and heard a mock-up conversation to advisors involving a account of AI-based exploitation. The interaction depicted a adolescent seeking help after facing extortion using a sexualised deepfake of himself, constructed using AI.

"When I hear about young people facing blackmail online, it is a source of intense anger in me and justified concern amongst families," he stated.

Alarming Data

A leading internet monitoring organization reported that cases of AI-generated abuse content – such as webpages that may include multiple images – had more than doubled so far this year.

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

• Female children were predominantly targeted, making up 94% of illegal AI images in 2025
• Portrayals of infants to two-year-olds increased from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Response

The legislative amendment could "represent a crucial step to guarantee AI tools are secure before they are released," commented the chief executive of the online safety foundation.

"Artificial intelligence systems have made it so survivors can be targeted all over again with just a few clicks, giving criminals the ability to make potentially limitless amounts of advanced, photorealistic child sexual abuse material," she continued. "Material which additionally exploits survivors' suffering, and renders children, particularly female children, less safe both online and offline."

Counseling Interaction Data

Childline also released details of counselling sessions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related risks discussed in the sessions include:

• Employing AI to evaluate body size, body and looks
• Chatbots dissuading young people from talking to trusted adults about abuse
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated material
• Digital extortion using AI-manipulated images

During April and September this year, the helpline delivered 367 support sessions where AI, conversational AI and associated topics were discussed, significantly more as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 interactions were related to psychological wellbeing and wellness, including utilizing AI assistants for assistance and AI therapeutic applications.