Increase in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse Online by Artificial Intelligence

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), one of the most important organizations active in combating illegal content online, has reported a significant increase in the production and distribution of images of child sexual abuse by artificial intelligence tools. According to this organization, the amount of criminal content identified in the last six months has exceeded that of the entire previous year. Derek Re-Hill, the interim executive director of the Internet Watch Foundation, emphasized that the complexity of these images indicates that the AI tools used have been trained on images and videos of real victims. He stated, 'Recent months have shown that this problem has not only not been resolved but has worsened.' The report also indicates that nearly all identified content has been found in public sections of the internet, not the dark web, and is accessible without special browsers. This situation puts more pressure on regulatory bodies and executive authorities to combat this phenomenon. Other cases reported by this UK-based organization include videos produced using 'deepfake' techniques, where adult pornography images have been manipulated to resemble images of child abuse. Other examples include fabricated images of famous faces depicted as children in sexual abuse scenarios. The report raises the question of how seriously we should take warnings about artificial intelligence. More than half of this content is hosted on servers located in Russia and the United States, with a significant number also on servers in Japan and the Netherlands. The Internet Watch Foundation has compiled a list of links containing these images to collaborate with technology industries to block and make access to them impossible. In conclusion, the report notes that most reports of illegal images produced by AI have come from the general public and ordinary internet users who found them on public sites like forums and AI galleries. Instagram has also recently announced new measures to combat sexual extortion; a method of extortion where scammers, usually posing as young women, deceive users into sending them sensitive images and then threaten them with blackmail. Instagram stated that in this new feature, any nude images sent to users in private messages will be blurred, and they are encouraged to be cautious when sending any message that includes a nude image. After receiving an image, the user can choose whether they want to see it or not, and they also receive a message showing the option to block the sender and report the chat. This feature will be activated by default for teen accounts worldwide this week and will also be made available optionally for adults.