The Internet Watch Foundation, a UK charity that works to remove child sexual abuse material from the internet, says its analysts have seen a massive increase in AI child abuse content this year. The charity noted that reports of child sexual abuse online have already passed last year’s total, which is why it is hiring more analysts.
Hotline head says new material skews more severe
Ngaire Alexander, the charity’s head of hotline, told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire that AI generated material tends to sit at the more severe end of the scale because people can create whatever they want. The charity, based in Histon, Cambridgeshire, reported 300,000 instances of child sexual abuse online last year and typically sees growth from one year to the next.
Alexander, a former police officer, said the charity is also seeing people pay for tools, or pay others, to produce the content they want to see, which she called really alarming. She said technology companies must build safety by design into their tools, and UNICEF has urged similar safeguards from AI developers.
Earlier this month, the IWF reported finding more photorealistic AI generated child sexual abuse images in the first half of this year than in all of 2025, including images of children under two. Alexander said such material normalizes abuse, while images built from real people or existing victims continue the cycle of trauma for those victims.
“I can’t even call AI an emerging threat anymore.”
Charity expands team to handle AI child abuse caseload
To cope with the growth, the IWF is recruiting two additional office based internet content analysts. Members of the public can report suspected material to the hotline, where analysts assess both its legality and its severity.
Alexander said the work is difficult because analysts view images and videos of children being abused every day, which she described as challenging, triggering, stressful, and upsetting. Prevention work continues alongside it, including an initiative backed by major technology firms to deliver free online safety tools to businesses.
The charity says it needs recruits resilient enough to handle that material, and it has put measures in place to protect and support its workforce. Because the IWF usually sees year on year growth, it is urging technology companies to build safety into their tools so the harm is prevented at the source.