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Rising number of UK children report seeing explicit deepfakes of themselves
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.
In short
- Reports of explicit deepfakes involving children have risen sharply.
- 420 reports arrived in the first half of 2026.
- Campaigners want stronger AI safety protections.
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The case for
Technology companies must prioritise building robust safeguards into their AI products to prevent the escalating abuse of minors at its source. Given that children have virtually no control once their images are manipulated and distributed, and victims face documented sextortion and sexual exploitation, companies have both the technical capability and ethical obligation to implement detection systems, access controls, and consent verification. Prevention through technology offers the most direct protection for vulnerable young people from this burgeoning threat.
The case against
Whilst technical safeguards merit development, they must not distract from demonstrably more effective interventions: aggressive law enforcement investigation and prosecution of perpetrators and sextortionists, alongside comprehensive digital literacy education. Reliable deepfake detection at scale remains technically difficult, and regulatory approaches risk stifling innovation whilst determined abusers circumvent controls through workarounds. Resources are better invested in catching criminals who cause immediate documented harm and equipping young people to recognise and report exploitation.
Explained simply
Deepfakes are images or videos altered with artificial intelligence to make someone appear to do or wear something they did not. Some online tools can manipulate ordinary pictures to make them look sexually explicit, often without the person’s knowledge or consent.
Report Remove is a service run by the Internet Watch Foundation and the NSPCC that helps under-18s report intimate images and seek to have them removed. Images involving children can be treated as child sexual abuse material even when they have been digitally altered, and UK law makes creating or sharing AI-generated child sexual abuse material illegal.
Once an image is copied or shared, it can be difficult for the person shown to regain control of it. The issue has raised questions about how technology companies can prevent their tools being misused and how young people can get help.
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