AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery is surging, overwhelming U.S. law enforcement.
AI-Generated Child Abuse Images Overwhelm Law Enforcement
A Bloomberg investigation shows that AI-generated or altered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is overwhelming 61 ICAC task forces in the United States. NCMEC received 1.5 million reports of suspected CSAM related to AI tools in 2025, compared to 67,000 in 2024 and only 4,700 in 2023; of these, 7,000 involved successfully generated or possessed AI-generated exploitation material, 30,000 were attempts to generate such material, another 145,000 involved using AI to alter existing CSAM files, and 3,000 involved seeking help from chatbots for grooming or role-playing. The UK's Internet Watch Foundation found 3,443 realistic AI child sexual abuse videos in 2025, compared to just 13 the previous year. Cases involve tools such as Stable Diffusion and Grok, as well as practices of scraping children's photos from Facebook and Instagram and then processing them.
Primary data from NCMEC and multiple state ICACs show how AI-generated child sexual abuse material crowds out investigative resources for real cases, useful for researchers focused on content governance and law enforcement capacity.