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Technology companies and child protection agencies will be granted permission to assess whether AI systems can produce child exploitation material under recently introduced UK legislation.

Substantial Increase in AI-Generated Illegal Content

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

Updated Legal Structure

Under the amendments, the government will permit approved AI companies and child protection organizations to examine AI systems – the underlying technology for chatbots and visual AI tools – and ensure they have adequate protective measures to stop them from creating depictions of child sexual abuse.

"Fundamentally about stopping abuse before it occurs," declared Kanishka Narayan, noting: "Specialists, under strict conditions, can now detect the risk in AI models promptly."

Tackling Legal Challenges

The amendments have been implemented because it is against the law to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI creators and other parties cannot generate such images as part of a testing regime. Until now, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was published online before addressing it.

This legislation is aimed at averting that issue by enabling to halt the creation of those materials at source.

Legislative Structure

The changes are being introduced by the government as modifications to the crime and policing bill, which is also implementing a ban on owning, creating or sharing AI models designed to create exploitative content.

Real-World Impact

This week, the minister visited the London base of a children's helpline and heard a mock-up call to counsellors involving a report of AI-based exploitation. The call portrayed a teenager seeking help after facing extortion using a explicit AI-generated image of themselves, constructed using AI.

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

Alarming Data

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

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

• Female children were overwhelmingly victimized, accounting for 94% of illegal AI depictions 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 vital step to guarantee AI tools are safe before they are released," commented the chief executive of the internet monitoring organization.

"Artificial intelligence systems have made it so victims can be victimised all over again with just a few clicks, giving offenders the ability to create possibly endless quantities of sophisticated, photorealistic exploitative content," she continued. "Content which further exploits survivors' trauma, and makes children, especially female children, less safe both online and offline."

Counseling Interaction Data

The children's helpline also published details of support sessions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related harms discussed in the sessions comprise:

• Employing AI to evaluate body size, physique and appearance
• Chatbots dissuading children from talking to safe adults about abuse
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated material
• Online blackmail using AI-manipulated images

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

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 sessions were related to mental health and wellness, including using chatbots for support and AI therapy apps.