The United Kingdom is set to unveil the world’s first national law criminalizing the use of artificial intelligence tools for generating child sex abuse material, or CSAM.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a Sunday BBC interview that AI is leading to “online child abuse on steroids.” A series of four laws will, among other things, make it illegal to possess, create, or distribute AI tools designed to make CSAM, which would carry a maximum five-year prison sentence. The government will also criminalize running websites where abusers can share this material or advice about cultivating it.
The Internet Watch Foundation, which focuses on eliminating CSAM on the internet, issued a new report on Sunday showing that AI-generated CSAM found online has quadrupled over the past year.
The United States criminalizes CSAM, but there’s some gray area about whether AI-generated content is treated the same under federal law. In 2024, 18 states passed laws specifically outlawing AI-generated CSAM, but so far there’s no federal law on the books.
