The advent of artificial intelligence technology (AI) has prompted excitement, fears, and speculation as to how it might affect the world.
However, in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, AI has also become a double-edged sword of sorts. The technology has presented significant challenges, especially when it comes to protecting children.
AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has reportedly been hampering law enforcement’s ability to identify and target child abusers while rescuing real-life victims. Kristina Korobov, senior attorney at the Zero Abuse Project, told The Guardian about this alarming new trend. “We are starting to see reports of images that are of a real child but have been AI-generated, but that child was not sexually abused. But now their face is on a child that was abused,” she said.
The sheer volume of AI-generated child abuse content is staggering – and heartbreaking. One AI model can generate tens of thousands of new CSAM images in a short period of time. Through these program models, perpetrators can flood the dark web and mainstream internet with these images, making it harder for overwhelmed law enforcement agencies to keep up.
“We’re just drowning in this stuff already,” said an anonymous Justice Department prosecutor. From a law enforcement perspective, crimes against children are one of the more resource-strapped areas, and there is going to be an explosion of content from AI.”
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported a 12 percent rise in child abuse reports in 2023. The majority of these reports were related to actual real-life photos and videos of children being sexually abused. However, about 4,700 reports involved AI-generated images.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in 2023 investigated its first reports of AI-generated CSAM. The organization found that over 20,000 of these images were posted to one dark web CSAM forum in just one month. “The technology is fast and accurate – images usually fit the text description very well,” the report notes.
“Most AI CSAM found is now realistic enough to be treated as ‘real’ CSAM,” researchers found.
Big tech companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon have tried to stop the spread of child abuse material on their platforms, according to The Verge.
The companies signed on to a new set of principles meant to limit the proliferation of CSAM. They promise to ensure training datasets do not contain CSAM, to avoid datasets with a high risk of including CSAM, and to remove CSAM imagery or links to CSAM from data sources. The companies also commit to “stress-testing” AI models to ensure they don’t generate any CSAM imagery and to only release models if these have been evaluated for child safety.
The Homeland Security Department is also leveraging AI to battle CSAM on the internet. A DHS report showed that the agency is using various tools to identify victims and dismantle CSAM distribution networks. “AI provides offenders the ability to produce exponentially more digital images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, presenting law enforcement with new and significantly challenging aspects of child sexual exploitation investigations,” the report said.
The rise of AI-generated child sexual abuse images presents a daunting challenge for law enforcement agencies and nonprofit organizations seeking to protect children. However, these entities are working to keep up with these criminal enterprises as lawmakers look at legislation aimed at making it easier to root out predators on digital platforms.
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, the methods used by online predators are becoming more intricate. This has posed a challenge to those trying to stop them. Hopefully, they will be able to evolve as well.
