A concerning trend has emerged in the UK, with a significant increase in reports from children about explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses. According to the Report Remove service, the number of flagged incidents has already surpassed the previous year’s total, highlighting the growing challenge posed by artificial intelligence in the realm of online safety.
Alarming Statistics Reveal Growing Threat
In the first half of this year alone, Report Remove has documented 420 reports from young users who believe they have been victims of digitally manipulated images. This figure already eclipses the total of 397 reported in all of 2025, signalling a troubling escalation in such incidents. The service, which aims to shield children from intimate images circulating online, has been inundated with reports as the capabilities of AI tools become increasingly accessible.
Dan Sexton, the chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which collaborates with the NSPCC on the Report Remove initiative, emphasised the implications of these figures. He noted that the rise in manipulated images showcases the challenges faced by children in protecting their online identities. “If someone can take a benign image of a child from the internet and create child sexual abuse material with it, there is nothing that child can do to stop it from happening apart from preventing anyone from taking pictures of them,” he stated.
The Role of Technology in Exploitation
The ease with which images can be altered using AI technology exacerbates the risks faced by children. The IWF has reported that many of the manipulated images flagged in recent years are severe enough to meet the threshold for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In the UK, the creation and distribution of AI-generated CSAM is illegal, and recent legislation has made it unlawful to adapt AI models for such purposes.
Rani Govender, an online safety expert at NSPCC, articulated the urgency for tech companies to implement stronger protective measures within their AI products. “This rise in children reaching out because fake or AI-generated sexual images have been created of them is alarming but also sadly predictable,” she remarked. “Tech companies cannot keep pushing out AI products without embedding strong protections that prevent this material from being created in the first place.”
The Dark Side of Deepfakes: Sextortion Risks
The ramifications of deepfake technology extend beyond mere image manipulation; some victims have reported being targeted for sextortion. This alarming practice involves blackmailers threatening to release manipulated images unless they receive financial payments or further explicit content from the victim. The Report Remove service allows children to flag such harmful images anonymously, turning them into digital fingerprints to assist in their removal from major platforms.
Given the rise in deepfakes, authorities have issued warnings urging parents and guardians to be vigilant. The National Crime Agency and IWF have advised against sharing identifiable pictures of children online, recommending that social media accounts remain private and that images be distributed only within trusted circles. These precautions are increasingly necessary, as cybercriminals have been known to scrape images from school websites and social media, converting them into exploitative material.
Why it Matters
The surge in reports of deepfake imagery among children serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities that young individuals face in an increasingly digital world. As technology continues to evolve, so too do the methods employed by malicious actors. The responsibility lies not only with parents and guardians to safeguard their children but also with technology companies to ensure that robust protections are in place. Without these measures, the potential for abuse will only grow, leaving children more exposed to the dangers posed by digital manipulation.