The United Kingdom is set to become the first country to introduce laws against artificial intelligence tools used to generate sexualised images of children, in an attempt to curb a phenomenon that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said was increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government announced on Saturday that it would make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools that generate abusive images, making it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AI tools are being used to generate child sexual abuse images by \u201cnudeifying\u201d real-life images of children or by \u201cstitching the faces of other children onto existing images\u201d, said the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will also be a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to possess AI \u201cpaedophile manuals\u201d that teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new laws will also criminalise \u201cpredators who run websites designed for other paedophiles to share vile child sexual abuse content or advice on how to groom children\u201d, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, said the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a real disturbing phenomenon,\u201d Cooper told Sky News on Sunday. \u201cOnline child sexual abuse material is growing, but also the grooming of children and teenagers online. And what\u2019s now happening is that AI is putting this on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said AI tools were making it easier for perpetrators \u201cto groom children, and it\u2019s also meaning that they are manipulating images of children and then using them to draw and to blackmail young people into further abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just the most vile of crimes,\u201d she added. \u201cOther countries are not yet doing this, but I hope everyone else will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cooper told the BBC on Sunday that a recent inquiry had found that around 500,000 children across the UK are victims of child abuse of some form each year, \u201cand the online aspect of that is an increasing and growing part of it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a British non-profit focused on combating online abuse, has warned of the growing number of sexual abuse AI images of children being produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over a 30-day period in 2024, IWF analysts identified 3,512 AI child abuse images on a single dark web site. The number of the most serious category of images also rose by 10 percent in a year, it found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source:\u00a0Al Jazeera\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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