Child Sexual Abuse Content Surging with AI-Generated Images
A disturbing new trend is emerging in the online exploitation of children: the creation and sharing of sexually abusive imagery made using advanced AI technologies. According to a report released by The Guardian on April 16, 2024, intelligence agencies and law enforcement are seeing a marked increase in the volume of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) being distributed across the internet.
"AI tools have made it easier than ever for offenders to create realistic, high-quality CSAM without directly exploiting real children," said John Davis, lead author of the report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). "This allows an endless stream of new abusive content to be created from the same set of pictures or videos of child victims."
The rise in CSAM comes as organisations like NCMEC and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) ramp up efforts to combat online child exploitation. NCMEC has launched its "Take It Down" programme to enable survivors to report nude or sextortion images and videos so they can be removed from the internet. Likewise, UNODC's new "Beware the Share" campaign aims to raise awareness in Southeast Asia about online child sexual abuse.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says Take It Down is a "groundbreaking" and "powerful tool to help children regain control" of images and videos of themselves shared on the Internet. SOURCE: NCMEC
“The massive digitalisation from COVID-19 has revealed disturbing trends of increased online child exploitation in this region.”
Globally, over 200,000 children go online for the first time each day, with around 800 million actively using social media. Teenagers average 9 hours per day online but are often unprepared to handle the threats, which can seriously impact their mental and physical health.
Additionally, this rise in AI-CSAM coincides with the online risk to children continuing to grow at an alarming rate, especially in countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. The Southeast Asia region has become a hub for CSAM production, with millions of abuse reports in recent years. In the Philippines alone, classified as having 80% of children vulnerable by UNICEF, there were nearly 8 million reports from 2019–2022.
“These images are incredibly difficult to detect through hashing or other standard methods,” said Davis. “We’re seeing offenders constantly adapting AI to keep re-victimising children in new ways.”
”We absolutely must get a handle on this before it spirals out of control,” said Davis. “AI has massively empowered abusers. Coordinated global action is vital.”
Combating AI-generated child exploitation requires a multifaceted global response. Europe is taking the lead by establishing the AI Act to create a guardrail for responsible AI development and use. Major social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pornhub, and OnlyFans are participating with the “Take It Down” platform. But individual action is also crucial; the public can report CSAM instances to NCMEC's CyberTipline to aid in investigations and victim identification.
SOURCE: UNODC
Education is key as well. The UNODC's newly launched "Beware the Share" campaign aims to raise awareness about online child sexual abuse risks in local languages across Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The initiative utilises influencers to amplify its child safety messages tailored to the region.
Technological solutions, stronger laws, public-private partnerships, and societal pushback are all required elements. Only by confronting AI-enabled exploitation from all angles can we defuse this ticking time bomb and safeguard the digital well-being of our children.
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