420 UK children reported explicit deepfakes of themselves in six months. The problem is getting worse

Children in the UK are reporting a sharp rise in explicit AI-generated images depicting themselves, according to figures from Report Remove, an online service that allows young people to anonymously report intimate images shared without consent.

The service received 420 reports in the first six months of 2026 from children who believed images of themselves had been manipulated or fabricated. That is already higher than the 397 reports recorded during the whole of 2025, according to The Guardian.

The figures highlight a growing problem with generative AI: creating convincing fake images of a real person increasingly requires little technical skill, while stopping those images from spreading can be considerably harder.

AI is making fake images easier to create

Report Remove, operated by the Internet Watch Foundation alongside the NSPCC, has seen enough manipulated imagery involving under-18s that it added a specific option for children to flag AI-generated material. The service said the majority of manipulated-image reports it received in 2025 and 2026 were serious enough to cross its threshold for child sexual abuse material.

Dan Sexton, chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation, said the figures demonstrated how difficult it is to prevent ordinary photographs from being manipulated once they are available online.

That is particularly concerning because the original photograph does not need to be explicit. A harmless image taken from a public social media account can potentially be altered and turned into something abusive.

The problem also extends beyond embarrassment or reputational damage. According to the report, some victims have been targeted for sextortion, with perpetrators demanding money or threatening to distribute manipulated images more widely. There have also been cases involving attempts to target schools by collecting photographs of pupils and using AI to manipulate them.

Parents and platforms are being forced to rethink safety

Online safety experts say technology companies need stronger safeguards around AI image-generation tools. Rani Zachariah, an online safety expert at the NSPCC, said the increase in children reporting fake or AI-generated sexual imagery was alarming but predictable, arguing that stronger protections need to be built into AI products.

The National Crime Agency and Internet Watch Foundation have also urged parents and guardians to be cautious about posting identifiable pictures of children publicly. The advice is not necessarily to remove every photograph from the internet, but to reduce how easily strangers can access and reuse identifiable images.

For children already affected, Report Remove provides a way to flag images anonymously and seek help getting them removed.

The larger problem, however, is moving faster than the safeguards. AI tools can generate increasingly convincing imagery in seconds, while removing copies from websites and social platforms is a slower process. As Sexton warned, everyone is potentially at risk.