420 UK Children Report Explicit Deepfakes in First Half of 2026, Exceeding All of Last Year

Surge in Explicit Deepfakes Targeting UK Children

The Report Remove service, operated by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) alongside the NSPCC, received 420 reports from children in the first six months of 2026 regarding explicit deepfakes and manipulated images of themselves2

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. This figure has already surpassed the 397 reports recorded during all of 2025, signaling a rapid escalation in AI-generated deepfakes targeting minors3

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. The surge reflects growing concerns about non-consensual intimate images created using nudification tools and generative AI technologies that require minimal technical skill to operate.

Dan Sexton, chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation, emphasized the alarming reality: "If someone can take a benign image of a child from the internet and create child sexual abuse material with it, there is nothing that child can do to stop it from happening apart from preventing anyone from taking pictures of them"2

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. The majority of manipulated images reported to Report Remove in 2025 and 2026 were severe enough to meet the threshold for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which is illegal in the UK2

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Victim Calls for Stronger AI Regulation

Georgia Horton, whose modelling photographs were stolen from social media and manipulated into sexually explicit images by former college friend Ethan Orchard, is demanding better AI regulation1

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. Orchard was jailed for three years and four months in July after creating and sharing fake explicit images of Georgia Horton and two other women, while also posting violent and sexually explicit fantasies online1

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. Georgia Horton described discovering the images as horrifying and now advocates publicly about the dangers of AI, stating: "Everyone seems to be so pro-AI, thinking it's just a bit of fun on a computer screen. But it's dangerous"1

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While the UK government introduced legislation earlier this year making it a criminal offence to create sexually explicit deepfakes without consent, Georgia Horton argues the legal frameworks don't go far enough1

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. "The technology to make these images and videos is still out there and still widely available. There needs to be more regulation and much tougher safety features built into the programmes themselves," she said1

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. She criticized tech companies for relying on self-regulation, noting that safeguards can be bypassed "with just a few changes to the prompts"1

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Rising Sextortion and Blackmail Threats

Beyond reputational harm, victims face sextortion attempts where blackmailers threaten to publish manipulated material unless they receive payment or additional explicit images2

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. Cybercriminals have also targeted schools by scraping publicly available photographs of children, using AI to convert them into child sexual abuse material, then threatening to publish the imagery unless demands are met2

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. Schools have been urged to remove identifiable pictures of pupils from their websites and social media accounts in response.

The problem extends beyond individual cases. During the police investigation into Georgia Horton's case, officers uncovered what they described as a "truly horrifying" website containing more than one million child sexual abuse images1

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. This discovery underscores the scale of CSAM distribution enabled by AI technologies.

Calls for Stronger AI Safety Protections

Rani Govender, an online safety expert at the NSPCC, stated: "This rise in children reaching out because fake or AI-generated sexual images have been created of them is alarming but also sadly predictable. Tech companies cannot keep pushing out AI products without embedding strong protections that prevent this material from being created in the first place"2

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. The demand for stronger AI safety protections reflects frustration with tech companies' current approaches to preventing abuse.

The UK government acknowledged the severity of the issue, with a Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson calling the creation and sharing of non-consensual intimate images "utterly vile"1

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. The government stated it is forcing platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a report and holding company bosses personally liable when they fail to comply with regulatory decisions on intimate image abuse1

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Warnings About Sharing Personal Photos Online

The National Crime Agency and IWF have encouraged parents and guardians to keep pictures of their children away from public display online, suggesting making social media accounts private or sharing through "close friends" groups only2

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. Georgia Horton went further, urging that "photos of children being posted online should be banned," warning that "it only takes one photo to be put through AI and limitless images can be created"1

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Sexton warned that the challenge is asymmetric: AI tools can generate convincing imagery in seconds, while removing copies from websites and platforms is considerably slower3

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. As he stated, "Everyone in the world is at risk"2

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. The Report Remove service has responded by adding a specific checkbox to its online submission form allowing children to flag material as deepfaked, reflecting how common such reports have become2

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