More than 8,000 AI-generated images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse were identified by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2025 – a 14% increase on the year before – as the National Crime Agency warned parents not to publicly share images of their children online.
“While we and policing colleagues tackle offenders, prevention remains vital,” said Tim Wright, a senior manager at the NCA. In partnership with the IWF, the agency has released fresh guidance for parents, urging them to review privacy settings, check existing social media posts for identifying details, and revisit consent with friends, family, schools and clubs about how images of their child are used.
“NCA warns parents not to share children's images online as AI-generated child abuse imagery rises 14% in a year.”
The guidance acknowledges that “AI is becoming a part of everyday life” but can be misused “by those who use it to make, manipulate and share nude, semi-nude or sexual images and videos of children”. The IWF said its analysts identified 13 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2024 – a figure that jumped to 3,440 in 2025. The government has banned so-called “nudification” apps and tweaked laws to help AI firms prevent their systems from producing such material.
The alert comes as a BBC Eye investigation found Instagram running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India. The ads used terms including “rape video” and “child video”, linking users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where material could be bought for as little as 99 rupees (about 80p). The alias account set up for the investigation saw about 30 unique adverts promoting child sexual abuse. One showed a boy and a girl, both appearing about 12 years old, engaging in a sexual act.
When the BBC reported one of the ads to Instagram, the platform responded 24 hours later saying it did not violate its “community guidelines”. After the BBC asked Meta for comment, the company said it had disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them, and removed additional ads and blocked URLs in response to the findings. The Indian government said it had summoned Meta representatives over the adverts.
Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups and channels related to child sexual abuse material in 2026.