TikTok, Snapchat, to Crackdown on AI-Generated Child Abuse Images

Tech Giants TikTok, Snapchat, and others sign a joint statement pledging to create efforts against AI-generated child sex abuse images. The statement promises to utilize a responsible artificial intelligence surrounding child sex abuse images. The tech giants reportedly signed the statement on Monday, as announced by British Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

TikTok, Snapchat, and Stability AI have all vowed to keep "technical innovation around tackling child sexual abuse in the age of AI" going. According to the declaration, AI must be created "in a way that is for the common good of protecting children from sexual abuse across all nations."

The Home Secretary and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) hosted the event, promising to clamp down on the practice by regulating the technology used to make it possible.

Braverman emphasized during the event that "child sexual abuse images generated by AI are an online scourge. This is why tech giants must work alongside law enforcement to clamp down on their spread. The pictures are computer-generated but they often show real people - it's depraved and damages lives."

The announcement comes just days before the first-ever global AI safety summit and after watchdog Internet Watch Foundation recently found out about the booming practice used by predators in the dark web and warned UK authorities of it potentially flooding the internet.

The recent IWF report, as covered by Tech Times, examines 20,254 AI-generated images uploaded on a dark web CSAM forum in one month, wherein 11,108 were determined most likely to be criminal.

Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF, said, "we first raised the alarm about this in July. In a few short months, we have seen all our worst fears about AI realised."

AI Creating Child Sex Abuse Images

The majority of the AI-generated child abuse images' realism was described as "astounding" by the IWF CEO, which has only continued to improve over time. Hargreaves then emphasized that the UK law must treat the images "as though it were real imagery."

BBC reports that another trend of predators is taking single photos of well-known child abuse victims and recreating many more of them in different sexual abuse settings.

AI-generated child abuse images also victimize famous figures, as IWF analysts saw female singers and movie stars being de-aged using imaging software to make them look like children.

AI-generated images concerning child sex abuse have recently caught traction amongst legal authorities, as reported by Rolling Stone.

Students in American schools have already created AI nudes to intimidate and bully each other. The Muskego, Wisconsin police department discovered in October that at least ten middle school girls were exploited by a 33-year-old man, demanding explicit photos, threatening to use generative AI to make them appear sexual and send them to their family and friends.

The FBI issued a warning earlier this year about an increase in the use of AI-generated deepfakes for such "sextortion" schemes, stating that the agency is getting reports from victims "including minor children."

AI Fighting Child Sex Abuse Images

The event, however, still clarified that the UK government still sees the benefits of artificial intelligence, showing that it provides opportunities in enhancing responses to child sexual abuse.

The Home Office, in collaboration with the police and other partners, has created the world's premier Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), which is already employing AI to rate the severity of child sexual abuse material.

The AI program assists police officers in quickly sorting through enormous amounts of data, bringing specific photos to the top for the officer to focus on to improve investigations.

This allows cops to detect and protect youngsters more quickly, as well as identify perpetrators. These technologies also benefit officers' well-being by reducing extended exposure to these visuals.

Other solutions are also being developed to use AI to protect children and rapidly identify criminals.