UK to introduce new laws to criminalise AI-generated child abuse images
"AI tools used for child sexual abuse images targeted in Home Office crackdown" 1 February 2025.
UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material.
Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.
In an attempt to close a legal loophole that has been a major concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.
Those found guilty will face up to five years in prison.
It will also become illegal for anyone to possess manuals that teach potential offenders how to use AI tools to either make abusive imagery or to help them abuse children, with a potential prison sentence of up to three years.
A stringent new law targeting those who run or moderate websites designed for the sharing of images or advice to other offenders will be put in place....
The news follows warnings that the use of AI tools in the creation of child sexual abuse imagery has more than quadrupled in the space of a year. There were 245 confirmed reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse images last year, up from 51 in 2023, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)...
AI tools have been deployed in a variety of ways by those seeking to abuse children. It is understood that there have been cases of deploying it to “nudify” images of real children, or applying the faces of children to existing child sexual abuse images.
The voices of real children and victims are also used.
Newly generated images have been used to blackmail children and force them into more abusive situations, including the live streaming of abuse...
The new laws are among changes that experts have been demanding for some time.
“There is certainly more to be done to prevent AI technology from being exploited, but we welcome [the] announcement, and believe these measures are a vital starting point,” said ..., the interim IWF chief executive.