In an era of the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Britain would become the first country to introduce laws against AI tools used to generate sexual abuse images of children.
A government statement read, “Children will be protected from the growing threat of predators generating AI images and from online sexual abuse as the UK becomes the first country in the world to create new AI sexual abuse offences.”
UK would make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with a punishment of up to five years in prison.
AI paedophile manuals that teach people to use AI for sexual abuse will also be made illegal, with a term of three years in prison for offenders.
Addressing the recent development of the government against AI, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper accused AI of ‘putting the online child abuse on steroids’ and “industrialising the scale” of sexual abuse against children.
Websites allowing paedophiles to share child sexual abuse content or provide advice to groom children will also be considered an offence with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
Additionally, the Border Force will be authorized to instruct individuals suspected of posing a sexual risk to children to unlock their digital devices for inspection upon attempting to enter the UK. Depending on the severity of the images, offenders could face up to three years in prison.
Cooper stated, “The new laws are designed to keep our children safe online as technologies evolve. It is vital that we tackle child sexual abuse online as well as offline.” She shared that the measures to be adopted could be further increased in the future.
According to the Internet Watch Foundation’s (IWF) latest data, AI-generated CSAM has seen a surge of 380% with 245 confirmed reports in 2024 compared with 51 in 2023. Each report can contain thousands of images.
