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Tech firms and child safety organizations will receive authority to assess whether AI systems can produce child exploitation material under new UK legislation.

Significant Increase in AI-Generated Illegal Content

The announcement coincided with revelations from a safety watchdog showing that reports of AI-generated CSAM have increased dramatically in the last twelve months, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Legal Structure

Under the amendments, the government will allow approved AI developers and child protection organizations to examine AI systems – the underlying systems for chatbots and image generators – and ensure they have sufficient protective measures to prevent them from producing depictions of child exploitation.

"Ultimately about stopping exploitation before it occurs," declared Kanishka Narayan, noting: "Specialists, under rigorous conditions, can now identify the danger in AI models promptly."

Addressing Regulatory Challenges

The changes have been introduced because it is illegal to produce and own CSAM, meaning that AI developers and other parties cannot generate such content as part of a evaluation regime. Until now, authorities had to delay action until AI-generated CSAM was published online before addressing it.

This legislation is aimed at preventing that issue by helping to stop the creation of those images at their origin.

Legal Framework

The changes are being introduced by the authorities as revisions to the criminal justice legislation, which is also implementing a prohibition on possessing, creating or sharing AI systems developed to create child sexual abuse material.

Practical Consequences

This recently, the official visited the London headquarters of Childline and listened to a simulated conversation to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based abuse. The call portrayed a adolescent requesting help after facing extortion using a explicit deepfake of himself, constructed using AI.

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

Alarming Data

A leading online safety organization stated that instances of AI-generated exploitation material – such as online pages that may contain numerous images – had more than doubled so far this year.

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

• Female children were predominantly victimized, making up 94% of illegal AI depictions in 2025
• Portrayals of infants to toddlers rose from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Industry Reaction

The law change could "constitute a vital step to guarantee AI products are safe before they are released," stated the chief executive of the internet monitoring organization.

"Artificial intelligence systems have enabled so survivors can be targeted all over again with just a simple actions, providing criminals the capability to create potentially endless amounts of sophisticated, photorealistic exploitative content," she continued. "Content which additionally commodifies victims' trauma, and renders children, particularly female children, less safe on and off line."

Counseling Session Information

Childline also published information of counselling interactions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related risks discussed in the conversations include:

• Using AI to evaluate weight, physique and appearance
• Chatbots dissuading young people from talking to safe guardians about abuse
• Being bullied online with AI-generated material
• Online extortion using AI-manipulated images

Between April and September this year, the helpline conducted 367 counselling interactions where AI, conversational AI and related terms were mentioned, four times as many as in the same period last year.

Half of the references of AI in the 2025 sessions were related to psychological wellbeing and wellbeing, encompassing using chatbots for support and AI therapeutic apps.