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Tech firms and child safety organizations will receive permission to assess whether artificial intelligence systems can generate child abuse material under new British legislation.

Significant Increase in AI-Generated Illegal Content

The declaration coincided with findings from a protection watchdog showing that cases of AI-generated child sexual abuse material have more than doubled in the past year, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Legal Structure

Under the changes, the authorities will allow designated AI developers and child protection groups to examine AI models – the underlying systems for conversational AI and visual AI tools – and ensure they have adequate protective measures to stop them from producing depictions of child exploitation.

"Ultimately about preventing abuse before it occurs," stated Kanishka Narayan, noting: "Experts, under strict conditions, can now detect the risk in AI systems early."

Addressing Legal Obstacles

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

This law is designed to preventing that problem by enabling to halt the creation of those images at source.

Legislative Structure

The amendments are being added by the authorities as revisions to the crime and policing bill, which is also establishing a ban on possessing, producing or distributing AI systems designed to create child sexual abuse material.

Real-World Impact

This week, the minister toured the London headquarters of a children's helpline and listened to a mock-up call to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based exploitation. The call portrayed a adolescent seeking help after facing extortion using a explicit AI-generated image of himself, created using AI.

"When I learn about young people experiencing blackmail online, it is a cause of intense anger in me and rightful anger amongst parents," he said.

Concerning Statistics

A leading online safety foundation stated that instances of AI-generated exploitation content – such as webpages that may include multiple images – had significantly increased so far this year.

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

• Girls were predominantly targeted, accounting for 94% of illegal AI depictions in 2025
• Portrayals of newborns to toddlers increased 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 head of the internet monitoring foundation.

"AI tools have made it so survivors can be targeted all over again with just a few clicks, providing criminals the capability to make potentially endless amounts of advanced, photorealistic exploitative content," she continued. "Content which additionally exploits survivors' suffering, and renders young people, especially girls, less safe on and off line."

Counseling Session Data

The children's helpline also published details of counselling interactions where AI has been mentioned. AI-related harms mentioned in the conversations include:

• Using AI to rate weight, body and appearance
• AI assistants discouraging children from talking to safe adults about harm
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated content
• Digital extortion using AI-manipulated pictures

Between April and September this year, Childline conducted 367 counselling sessions where AI, chatbots and associated terms were mentioned, four times as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Fifty percent of the mentions of AI in the 2025 interactions were connected with mental health and wellness, encompassing utilizing chatbots for support and AI therapy applications.