NCA, IWF warn parents over AI child abuse imagery surge
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- NCA and IWF issued joint guidance urging parents not to publicly share children's images online, saying there is a growing threat of such photos being used to create AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- The IWF identified more than 8,000 AI-generated images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse in 2025, a 14% increase on the previous year.
- AI-generated CSAM videos detected by IWF analysts surged from 13 in 2024 to 3,440 in 2025, and the imagery is classified as CSAM under UK law.
- The guidance directs parents to review social media privacy settings, audit existing posts for identifying details like faces or school uniforms, and revisit image consent with family, schools and clubs.
- The UK government has banned so-called "nudification" apps and amended laws to ensure AI systems cannot be used to produce CSAM.
- NCA senior manager Tim Wright said "prevention remains vital," while IWF boss Kerry Smith said the risks "are not hypothetical threats, they are real."
- The warning builds on longstanding "sharenting" concerns — a term added to the Collins English Dictionary in 2016 — with AI image manipulation, including clothing-removal tools, now adding a new layer of risk.
Why it matters: The jump from 13 to 3,440 AI-generated CSAM videos in a single year reframes parents' social media habits as a frontline child-safety issue rather than just a privacy debate. With the UK government already banning nudification apps and tightening AI laws, the NCA and IWF are giving families concrete steps — privacy settings, post audits, consent reviews — to shrink the raw material that feeds these pipelines.
