UK children are increasingly reporting sexually explicit deepfake images made using their likenesses, highlighting how accessible AI and ‘nudification’ tools can facilitate image-based abuse. The rise has prompted calls for technology companies to build stronger safeguards into AI products and reflects growing concerns that victims have limited control once ordinary images are manipulated.

Report Remove received 420 reports in the first half of 2026 from under-18s who believed images of them had been faked or altered to appear explicit, already surpassing the 397 reports recorded across all of 2025. The service, run by the Internet Watch Foundation with the NSPCC, says most reported manipulated images in 2025 and 2026 met the threshold for child sexual abuse material; some victims were also subjected to sextortion. Creating AI-generated child sexual abuse material, adapting AI models for that purpose, and distributing such models are illegal in the UK.