Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent AI-generated sexual images of children being used to blackmail people.

This Government is taking robust action to tackle the growing threat of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including where offenders use innocent images of children to create sexualised or abusive content.

The law is crystal clear: child sexual abuse material is illegal regardless of whether it is produced using artificial intelligence or any other means. Law enforcement agencies will pursue those who create, possess, distribute or use such material to facilitate further offending, including blackmail and coercion.

Through the Crime and Policing Act, we have introduced a new offence targeting AI models designed or adapted to generate child sexual abuse material, helping to prevent this abuse at its source. We have also taken action to ban so-called "nudify" tools, which can be used to create sexually explicit images from posted images, including images of children.

In addition, we have introduced a technology testing defence to enable authorised organisations, child protection charities and other AI safety companies to safely test AI systems and identify vulnerabilities within AI models. This supports the development of stronger safeguards to prevent AI systems from being able to generate child sexual abuse material in the first place.

Online services also have duties under the Online Safety Act to assess risks and implement proportionate measures to protect users, particularly children. They are also required to tackle illegal content on their platforms, including by implementing effective systems and processes to reduce the risk of illegal content being shared across public and private spaces, and by providing users with clear and accessible reporting mechanisms.

The Government is also working closely with industry, law enforcement, child protection organisations and the AI Security Institute to understand AI risks and improve safeguards across the AI ecosystem, to reduce opportunities for offenders to create, distribute and profit from AI-generated child sexual abuse material.