The Pulse

UK Tightens Deepfake Laws as AI Child Abuse Videos Surge

New offences covering deepfakes and nudification apps, Internet Watch Foundation data and a government plan for device-level nudity filters show how AI-generated sexual imagery is reshaping child-protection law in the UK.

AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked · 2026-09-12

England and Wales have brought in criminal offences aimed at sexually explicit deepfakes and the apps used to make them, as Internet Watch Foundation data show a steep rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse videos and the government prepares device-level rules to stop children taking, viewing or sending nude images.

New offences cover adult deepfakes and nudification tools

New offences came into force in England and Wales on 6 February 2026 covering the creation, or request for creation, of a purported intimate image of an adult without consent or a reasonable belief in consent. The provisions are intended to address sexually explicit deepfake and AI-generated images, the Crown Prosecution Service says.

On 29 June 2026, a further offence came into force covering the making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply purported intimate-image generators. CPS guidance describes these as tools often known as nudifying or nudification apps, typically used to remove clothing from images.

For child sexual abuse material, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 created an offence of adapting, possessing, supplying or offering to supply a child sexual abuse image generator. The offence relies on existing definitions, the government’s factsheet says: photographs and pseudo-photographs under the Protection of Children Act 1978, and prohibited images under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

Police data remain patchy

Data collected from police forces in England and Wales remain inconsistent. By July 2026, 20 forces in England and Wales had recorded 163 offences returned through searches for terms including “AI-generated”, “deepfake” and “nudify”, compared with 10 in 2023, IBTimes reported. The figures are not a national prevalence estimate, because they depend on which forces responded and how offences were recorded.

Internet Watch Foundation data shows growth in AI abuse videos

The Internet Watch Foundation assessed 8,029 AI-generated images and videos showing realistic child sexual abuse in 2025, it said. It identified 3,443 AI-generated child sexual abuse videos that year, compared with 13 in 2024—an increase of 26,385%.

Of those videos, 2,233, or 65%, were classified as Category A, the most serious category. AI-generated material can re-victimise known survivors where models are trained or fine-tuned on existing abuse imagery, the foundation said. It repeated a finding from its 2024 AI report that one offender had shared links to fine-tuned models for 128 different victims of child sexual abuse.

The foundation cited research by the UK Safer Internet Centre finding that about one in eight 13- to 17-year-olds had seen people their age use AI to make sexual pictures or videos of others. The same research found that 61% of 13- to 17-year-olds were concerned about peers generating sexual images of young people.

Government prepares device-level rules

In a 9 September 2026 announcement, the government said it would prepare legislation requiring technology companies to strengthen protections intended to stop children taking, viewing or sending nude images. The proposed principles include nudity-detection filters switched on by default, with adults required to complete age assurance before accessing such functions.

“I know parents are worried about their children being safe when they have a phone. The truth is that too often, they aren’t.

In June we asked the biggest technology companies in the world to do one simple thing: make it impossible for a child to take, send or see a naked picture. They have moved. But not far enough or fast enough. So we will hold them to account and will not hesitate to change the law.

The protection will be built into the device and switched on by default. It will be for the companies to prove a user is an adult, not for a child to keep themselves out of harm’s way. No country has required that before. Britain will be the first, and we will have the strongest child safety laws in the world.”

Andy Burnham, Prime Minister, UK Government

The announcement also cited Internet Watch Foundation data showing that its Report Remove service received 394 sextortion reports in 2025, up from 19 in 2022. It said the foundation had reported in August that more child sexual extortion-related reports had been recorded in six months than in the whole of 2025.