The Internet Watch Foundation says the volume of AI-generated child sexual abuse material it has investigated this year already exceeds the total for 2025, a rise of 40%.
Key facts
- The IWF has assessed 6,310 AI images meeting the legal definition of child sexual abuse so far in 2026.
- That figure is 40% higher than last year's total of more than 4,500 images.
- More photorealistic abuse material was found in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2025.
- The UK-based IWF monitors abuse material globally.
AI-generated child sexual abuse material is proliferating online, with the amount of illegal content investigated this year already exceeding the total for 2025, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).
The UK-based organisation, which monitors abuse material globally, said its analysts had found more photorealistic child sexual abuse material in the first half of 2026 than for the whole of the previous year, according to the Guardian.
The IWF said it had assessed 6,310 AI images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse. That figure is 40% higher than last year’s total of more than 4,500 images.
The scale of the increase recorded in just the first half of the year points to a rapid acceleration in the production and spread of this type of material, the figures suggest.
The IWF’s role is to identify and assess illegal content so it can be acted upon, and its latest data highlights the growing challenge posed by increasingly realistic AI-generated imagery.
Why it matters
The sharp rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material shows how quickly the technology is being misused to produce realistic illegal imagery. It raises urgent questions for regulators, technology companies and law enforcement about how to detect and prevent such content.
Frequently asked questions
How many AI abuse images has the IWF assessed this year?
The IWF said it had assessed 6,310 AI images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse so far in 2026.
How does this compare with last year?
The 2026 figure is 40% higher than last year's total of more than 4,500 images, and the first half of 2026 alone exceeded the whole of the prior year.
What is the Internet Watch Foundation?
The IWF is a UK-based organisation that monitors child sexual abuse material online globally.