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AI child abuse images pass 2025’s total by June, IWF says
The Internet Watch Foundation counted 6,310 criminal AI-generated images in the first half of 2026, 40% more than in all of 2025.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the UK charity that finds and removes child sexual abuse material online, reported on Monday 5 October 2026 that its analysts assessed 6,310 AI-generated images meeting the legal definition of such abuse between January and June. That is 40% more than the 4,512 it recorded across 2025.
Girls appear in 98% of the images where age and gender were logged, and children aged seven to 13 in 79%, up from 70% last year. The IWF uses the figures to press EU lawmakers on a long-delayed regulation that would let platforms detect both known and new abuse material.
The Guardian notes the count covers still images only, and that the IWF’s head of policy, Hannah Swirsky, backs calls in Parliament for binding AI legislation. A UK government spokesperson told the paper ministers are moving to ban AI models used to make this material; building a model designed to produce it already carries up to five years in prison.
For AI image companies, the figures add weight to rules that would make model makers answer for what their systems can be made to produce, alongside the people who upload it.
Sources
- Internet Watch Foundation: More AI-generated child sexual abuse images found in the first six months of 2026 than all of 2025, IWF warns. Checked
- The Guardian: Internet Watch Foundation reports huge rise in AI child sexual abuse material. Checked
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