AI is becoming more powerful by the day, and the challenge of keeping children safe is growing with it.
At the November 2025 Child Dignity in the Artificial Intelligence Era conference in Rome, Internet Watch Foundation CEO Kerry Smith joined partners across faiths, nations and disciplines to discuss how the rapid development of artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming young lives and to address its impact on child dignity and rights.
IWF CEO Kerry met with Pope Leo XIV during the event, and shared insights on the rapid, frightening advancement in the ability to artificially generate child sexual abuse imagery since the IWF first started monitoring AI in early 2023.
Among the most urgent concerns raised was nudification tools, which can generate realistic sexualised images of children with ease and at scale. Following the conference, the IWF joined Child Helpline International, INHOPE, NCMEC, Offlimits, Safe Online and the WeProtect Global Alliance in calling for these tools to be banned. Supported by more than 100 organisations and individuals worldwide, the statement warned how nudify tools pose an unprecedented threat to women and children, particularly girls.
Against this backdrop, we welcome Pope Leo XIV's recent reflections on AI in his first encyclical. While recognising the opportunities AI presents, the Pope warns that technology must serve the common good and remain subject to human judgement and accountability.
For the IWF, this message reflects the dangers of what our analysts are already seeing. AI is being used to generate highly realistic abusive images and videos at scale, making it easier than ever for offenders to create and distribute child sexual abuse material.
In 2025 alone, the number of AI-generated child sexual abuse videos identified by the IWF increased more than 260%, with nearly two-thirds falling into the most severe category of abuse. Our Hotline has also uncovered offender communities exclaiming how AI can be used to create increasingly extreme material, while survivors are being re-victimised as existing abuse imagery is manipulated and amplified through these tools.
Following campaigning on this issue, the IWF welcomed a new legal defence, brought in under the UK Crime and Policing Act, which will empower designated bodies - like the Internet Watch Foundation - as well as AI developers and other child protection organisations, to scrutinise AI models robustly to make sure they cannot be used to create nude or sexual imagery of children.
Safety by Design
AI has enormous potential to benefit society, but only if safety is built in from the outset. As Pope Leo XIV makes clear, the challenge is not the technology itself but how it is developed and deployed.
That is why Safety by Design must be a requirement, not an afterthought. Working with members of the Online Safety Act (OSA) Network, the IWF has developed a Safety by Design Code of Practice to help regulated services meet their duty to consider safety from the earliest stages of development.
Companies should be required to assess, test and mitigate risks before AI systems reach the public. That includes preventing the creation and spread of AI-generated child sexual abuse material and restricting products designed to facilitate abuse, such as nudifying tools.
Working Together
The encyclical calls for AI to serve humanity, not dominate it. That principle must now be matched with action - stronger regulation, global alignment, and enforceable Safety by Design standards. Governments, technology companies and child protection organisations must work together to ensure safety is built into AI systems from the start.
Children are already being affected by the systems being built today. The task now is to ensure they are shaped by protection, not harm.
