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Technology companies and child safety organizations will be granted authority to assess whether artificial intelligence systems can generate child exploitation images under new British laws.

Significant Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Content

The announcement came as revelations from a protection watchdog showing that cases of AI-generated CSAM have increased dramatically in the last twelve months, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

Updated Legal Structure

Under the amendments, the government will permit designated AI companies and child safety groups to examine AI systems – the foundational systems for conversational AI and visual AI tools – and ensure they have adequate protective measures to prevent them from creating images of child exploitation.

"Fundamentally about stopping abuse before it occurs," declared Kanishka Narayan, adding: "Experts, under strict conditions, can now identify the risk in AI models early."

Tackling Regulatory Challenges

The changes have been introduced because it is against the law to produce and own CSAM, meaning that AI developers and others cannot generate such content as part of a evaluation regime. Previously, authorities had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was uploaded online before dealing with it.

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

Legislative Structure

The amendments are being added by the government as modifications to the criminal justice legislation, which is also implementing a ban on owning, creating or distributing AI systems designed to generate exploitative content.

Real-World Consequences

This week, the official visited the London headquarters of Childline and heard a mock-up conversation to counsellors involving a account of AI-based exploitation. The call portrayed a teenager seeking help after facing extortion using a sexualised deepfake of themselves, created using AI.

"When I learn about children facing blackmail online, it is a source of extreme anger in me and rightful anger amongst parents," he stated.

Alarming Data

A prominent internet monitoring foundation stated that instances of AI-generated exploitation material – such as online pages that may contain numerous files – had significantly increased so far this year.

Cases of category A content – the most serious form of exploitation – increased from 2,621 visual files to 3,086.

• Girls were predominantly victimized, accounting for 94% of illegal AI images in 2025
• Depictions of newborns to toddlers rose from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Response

The law change could "constitute a vital step to guarantee AI tools are safe before they are launched," stated the chief executive of the online safety foundation.

"AI tools have made it so victims can be victimised repeatedly with just a simple actions, giving offenders the ability to make potentially limitless quantities of sophisticated, photorealistic child sexual abuse material," she added. "Content which additionally exploits victims' suffering, and makes young people, particularly girls, more vulnerable both online and offline."

Counseling Session Information

Childline also released information of support sessions where AI has been referenced. AI-related risks discussed in the sessions include:

• Employing AI to evaluate weight, body and looks
• AI assistants discouraging young people from talking to safe adults about abuse
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated material
• Digital blackmail using AI-faked images

Between April and September this year, the helpline delivered 367 support sessions where AI, conversational AI and related terms were discussed, four times as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Half of the mentions of AI in the 2025 sessions were related to psychological wellbeing and wellbeing, encompassing using AI assistants for assistance and AI therapy apps.