AI-generated child sexual abuse content flood the online space, bogging down law enforcement agencies

EXPLOSION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CONTENT 

Earlier this year, the United States senate summoned the heads of some of the world’s biggest tech companies to testify about their platforms’ efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation online.

“We’ve seen child sexual abuse material become very prevalent on social media, on private websites, (and) basically anywhere that people congregate,” said Dr Westlake. 

Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 36 million reports of suspected child sexual abuse material. 

Observers said the consequences for victims and their families can be devastating.

At the same time, some experts told CNA that AI has made identifying actual victims more difficult. 

AI has, however, emerged as a double-edged sword – it has also become part of the tools used by law enforcement investigators and organisations looking to fight the problem.

Dr Marcel Van der Watt, senior vice president of impact and operations at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said: “We refer to it as augmented intelligence … AI-generated or created chatbots which engage in the real world with predators and sex traffickers online.”