The surprising way the British government is leading the world on AI

As Britain becomes the first country to pledge to make AI-generated child abuse images illegal, London’s victim commissioner Claire Waxman unpicks the extent of the dangers – both online and at home

The government has announced that the possession and distribution of AI tools used to produce images of child sexual abuse will become illegal, making Britain the first country in the world to build in this type of protection. This is a welcome and positive first step in this space.

With 97 per cent of 12-15 year olds owning a smartphone, and 5 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls in the UK estimated to experience some form of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) before the age of 16, the harm and lifelong suffering caused to victims cannot be overstated. There must be no excuse for those who perpetrate these crimes.

The horrific experiences of the victims of group-based sexual abuse in Oldham, Rotherham, Telford and elsewhere have received much attention since the beginning of the year, and should rightly remain in our minds.

But the recent political and media focus on their experiences has without doubt been driven by bad faith actors such as Elon Musk who have shown very little interest in sexual abuse and victims previously. He has exploited victim trauma to push his own political agenda via his platform X, which has itself faced serious concerns about the handling of reports of sexual abuse of children since Musk’s takeover.

I echo comments by Professor Alexis Jay, the former Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), who has criticised the weaponisation of these issues – and those politicians suddenly showing a newfound concern for victims, who had previously done so little to help while in government.

Let us not forget that the final IICSA report was published in 2022 – and that this work took seven years, cost £186m to produce, and gathered evidence from over 6,000 survivors. The former home secretary, who is one of those now expressing concern for victims, failed to implement any of its recommendations whilst in power.

What cannot be denied though is that for victims and survivors of CSA, the current focus and debate – while brought about in bad faith – has resulted in action, with a recent slew of positive announcements from the government. Importantly, these will be significant in helping victims of all forms of child sexual abuse, particularly measures such as allowing closed cases to be reviewed, which will help non-recent victims.

I remain concerned that the true nature, complexity, and scale of CSA has been lost from the current debate. While I welcome measures announced recently to better understand and address group-based exploitation, it must be recognised that police records show this type of offending only accounts for 5 per cent of all CSA.

I fear that what remains forgotten and has been omitted from recent discourse is that the sexual abuse of children is most likely to be perpetrated by a family member, with almost half of the 6,000 victim participants in IICSA’s truth project reporting this to be the case. If government is committed to tackling CSA, then we must see further measures to better protect victims within the family, where we see far too few charges being brought and a failure to safeguard children.

I hold specific concerns about loopholes in our legal system that may be enabling the continued abuse of children within the family. As the law stands, a person convicted of a serious sexual offence is automatically placed on the sex offender register – yet despite such serious convictions, offenders may still legally exercise their rights to gain access to their own children.

Last year, I worked with Baroness Chakrabarti to close this loophole by tabling an amendment to legislation that would have suspended parental responsibility when someone is convicted of a serious sexual offence against a child. Baroness Harman went further with her amendment and wanted this extended to anyone convicted of a sexual offence.

I am glad that government set out its intention to take action within the King’s Speech, and urge that this be done swiftly. As things stand, we will continue to see more cases of serial rapists being granted access to children – and protective mothers having to spend exorbitant amounts in court to defend their children from convicted paedophiles.

We need to ensure that children who report sexual abuse are believed and that they have access to appropriate support. The Lighthouse in London is the only service of its kind in England that offers multiagency support under one roof for children who have experienced sexual abuse and provides quality support throughout the criminal justice process.

If we want to stop child sexual abuse and bring more of these dangerous offenders to justice, we must see this type of support offered on a much greater scale across the country.