The IWF’s work is “vital” in combatting online child sexual abuse imagery, a Tech Minister said, amid calls for action on “scourge” of online grooming and abuse.
Speaking in the House of Lords on April 30, Labour Peer, Baroness Luciana Berger, asked the Government what assessment they have made of the Internet Watch Foundation’s Annual Data and Insights Report 2024, published on April 23, particularly with regard to child sexual abuse material generated by artificial intelligence.
Responding, Tech Minister Baroness Maggie Jones said: “The Internet Watch Foundation’s annual report highlights a harrowing increase in the amount of AI-generated child sexual abuse material online. The scale is shocking.”
She added: “The Government are deeply committed to tackling this crisis through the Online Safety Act and are specifically targeting AI CSAM threats in the Crime and Policing Bill. I pay tribute to the work of the IWF, which has been vital in helping us to identify and block such content.”
Baroness Berger said: “The Internet Watch Foundation’s report points to hundreds of thousands of reports during the 2024 period. It is a record-breaking number of reports, which is driven partly by a number of new threats, including AI-generated child sexual abuse, sextortion and the malicious sharing of sexual imagery.
“The IWF says that under-18s are now facing a “crisis” of sexual exploitation and risk online. I heard what the Minister said and ask her what the Government intends to do to protect children in the UK and around the world now to ensure that, when the 2025 report comes out next year, we see a significant reduction in the number of these crimes.”
Baroness Jones replied: “Through the Crime and Policing Bill, the Government will introduce a new suite of measures to tackle the growing threat of AI. This includes criminalising AI models made or adapted to generate child sexual abuse imagery and extending the existing paedophile manuals offence to cover AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
“In addition, the Home Office will bolster the network of undercover online police officers to target online offenders and develop cutting-edge AI tools and other new capabilities to infiltrate live streams and chat rooms where children are groomed.
“The Home Office is developing options at pace on potential device operating system-level safety controls to prevent online exploitation and abuse of children.”
She added: “It is also vital that we tackle the widespread sharing of self-generated indecent imagery. The report shows that 91% of the images are ‘self-generated’.
“This is young people who are being groomed and often quite innocently sharing their material, not realising the purpose for which it will be used. This is a huge and pressing issue, and my noble friend quite rightly raises that we need to take action now to tackle this scourge.”
Tory Peer, Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge, said there is a risk legislation cannot keep pace with the rapid development of new technology. She asked how the Government will ensure it can stay one step ahead of those who seek to abuse children in this way.
Baroness Jones said UK law applies to AI-generated child sexual abuse material in the same way as to “real” child sexual abuse.
“Creating, possessing or distributing any child sex abuse images, including those generated by AI, is illegal,” she said. “Generative AI child sexual abuse imagery is priority illegal content under the Online Safety Act in the same way as real content. However, you are quite right: we have to keep abreast of the technology. We are working at pace across government to make sure that we have the capacity to do that.”
Responding to a question from Labour Peer Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay, Baroness Jones stressed that legislation would continue to evolve to respond to emerging threats.
She said: “The Online Safety Act is not the end of the conversation; it is the foundation.
“We continue to look at how we can develop the legislation and how Ofcom can strengthen the codes in its own way. We are listening and debating, and we will not hesitate to take further action if it proves to be necessary.”
Labour Peer Lord Browne of Ladyton said AI-generated sexual abuse images are hosted on servers in Russia, Japan, the United States and the Netherlands. He asked what is being done to solve the jurisdictional issues that allow perpetrators to “act with impunity”.
Baroness Jones responded: “If a service, including file-sharing and storage services, poses a material risk to users in the United Kingdom, it must abide by the Online Safety Act and the illegal content duties, no matter where it is based.”
She added: “We are working with our colleagues internationally to make sure that we share information and determine the source of some of these materials, because sometimes we need to take action on an international basis.”
The debate follows the publication of the IWF’s Annual Data & Insights Report 2024, which was shared with Parliamentarians during an event earlier in the week.
