In a disconcerting trend, children in the UK are increasingly reporting explicit deepfake images featuring their own likenesses. The Report Remove service has disclosed that it received 420 such reports from minors in just the first half of this year, surpassing the entirety of 2025’s total of 397. This alarming rise has prompted safety experts to raise the alarm on the role of artificial intelligence in the creation of this manipulated content.
The Disturbing Reality of Deepfakes
The Report Remove service, created to help block intimate images from surfacing online, has observed a significant uptick in cases involving digitally altered or faked imagery. In a world where AI tools are becoming more accessible and sophisticated, the implications for children’s safety are dire. Dan Sexton, the chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which operates the service alongside the NSPCC, emphasised the challenge of curbing such manipulations.
“If someone can take a benign image of a child from the internet and create child sexual abuse material with it,” he stated, “there is nothing that child can do to stop it from happening apart from preventing anyone from taking pictures of them—or not putting pictures of themselves online.” This stark reality highlights the vulnerability of children in an increasingly digital world.
A Growing Repository of Reports
It’s not just the sheer volume of reports that is concerning. The nature of these deepfake images can be particularly harmful, with many cases classified as child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Sexton noted that the majority of recent reports met the threshold for CSAM, which is illegal in the UK. The government has responded by outlawing the use of AI to create or distribute abusive content.
In response to the growing number of flagged incidents, Report Remove has recently added a dedicated checkbox for children to identify material as deepfaked when submitting reports. This move aims to streamline the process and give victims a clearer voice.
Call for Stronger Protections
Rani Govender, an online safety expert at the NSPCC, underlined the urgency of the situation, calling for tech companies to implement robust safety measures in 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 threat of sextortion—where victims are coerced into providing financial payment or further explicit images—has also emerged as a concerning consequence of this deepfake trend. Sexton confirmed that some individuals reaching out to Report Remove have been targeted for such nefarious purposes, indicating a need for comprehensive preventative strategies.
Protecting Our Children Online
With the rise of AI-enabled deepfakes, safety experts are urging parents and guardians to be more vigilant. The National Crime Agency and IWF have advised that parents keep identifiable images of their children private and limit public exposure. Suggestions include making social media accounts private and sharing photographs only within trusted circles.
Schools are also being urged to remove identifiable images from their websites and social media platforms, following disturbing incidents where cybercriminals attempted to blackmail educational institutions using AI-generated content created from publicly available images of children.
Why it Matters
The increasing incidence of deepfake reports among children serves as a clarion call for both technological and societal change. As AI tools continue to advance, the potential for misuse grows exponentially, placing our youngest and most vulnerable at risk. This situation underscores the urgent need for tech companies to prioritise safety and for parents to be proactive in protecting their children online. The stakes have never been higher, and it is imperative that we act decisively to safeguard our children’s digital lives.
