Reports of AI-generated child pornography up 86% last year
The Dutch police are increasingly encountering AI-generated child pornography in their investigations. The number of reports about child abuse images made with artificial intelligence was 86 percent higher in 2024 than in 2023, the Telegraaf reports based on data from the police’s anonymous report center Meld Misdaad Anoniem.
In 2023, the police received 82 reports of AI-generated child pornography. Last year, there were 153 reports.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in the amount of AI-generated child abuse images we detect. The fact that people can unleash their own imaginations about what they want to see depicted turns that imagination into a kind of sliding scale in the seriousness of the material,” Danny van Althuis of the police told the Telegraaf. He was involved in a recent Europol bust of an AI child porn platform. 25 people were arrested. Four Dutch people were suspected of purchasing child pornography from this platform. They got off with a warning from the police.
The police’s Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism Team emphatically refutes the idea that AI-generated child pornography is better than the real thing. “While these aren’t real children, real abuse material was used to train/improve the AI tool in generating child pornographic images. The material can be used to give children the idea that performing certain actions is ‘normal,’ thus facilitating abuse. Viewing child pornography can also encourage someone to commit abuse themselves,” a spokesperson told the newspaper.
Dutch law does not distinguish between real and AI-generated child pornography in terms of criminal liability. Creating, distributing, and purchasing child pornography is punishable, whether AI-generated or not.
