UNICEF Urges Global Ban on Child Sexual Abuse AI Content Amid Rising Instances

UNICEF called for criminalising AI-generated child sexual abuse content creation, with reports indicating an increase in such images. The agency urged developers to implement safety-by-design approaches and guardrails to prevent misuse of AI models. Digital companies were also urged to strengthen content moderation through investment in detection technologies.

“Harm from deepfake abuse is real and urgent,” UNICEF stated. Deepfakes are artificial intelligence-generated images, videos, and audio that convincingly impersonate real people. The agency also raised concerns over what it termed “nudification” of children—using AI to strip or alter clothing in photos to create fabricated nude or sexualized images.

UNICEF reported at least 1.2 million child disclosures across eleven countries regarding their images being manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes within the past year.

Britain announced plans to make it illegal to use AI tools for creating such content, becoming the first country to enact this measure. Concerns have increased in recent years about AI-generated child abuse imagery, particularly concerning chatbots like Grok owned by Elon Musk, which has faced scrutiny over producing sexualized images involving women and minors.

A Reuters investigation found that despite users explicitly warning subjects of non-consent, Grok continued generating such images even when instructed not to. On January 14, xAI restricted image editing for Grok AI users based on their location from jurisdictions where it’s illegal to do so; prior to this, the use of Grok’s image generation and editing features had been limited to paying subscribers.