Computer-generated child sex abuse images are still being shared via messaging app Telegram – months after it vowed to ban them.
Just days ago Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK would become the first country to make it illegal to possess, create or distribute Artificial Intelligence tools used to make the vile content – with a maximum sentence of five years.
But this week we discovered chat groups on Telegram – an encrypted messaging app similar to WhatsApp – dedicated to “nudifying” children and using AI to strip off their clothes.
In one group, perverts posted images of young girls, some in bikinis, then ask other members to “undress” them using digital photo manipulation.
Others plug websites where users can easily create their own images.
One boasts: “Nudify anyone within a couple of seconds.”
Last night Love Island star and mum Cally Jane Beech, who found X-rated AI images of herself online, said: “It haunts me these dangerous individuals feel it’s their right to exploit children. It makes me sick to my stomach. As a mother I’m terrified for the world my daughter is growing up in.”
Our discoveries online come despite Telegram joining the Internet Watch Foundation and vowing to stop child sexual abuse imagery being spread across public parts of its platform, which has 700 million monthly users.
Chris Sherwood, of children’s charity the NSPCC, said: “It is alarming to see how easy it is to use AI to create and share child abuse imagery. We need robust regulation and much stronger measures to protect children.”
Sarah Smith, of child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, said: “These images cause real harm to real children. They normalise sexual violence towards them and revictimise those who have been sexually abused.
“AI images also make it harder for authorities to identify real cases. Tech companies must design their platforms to keep children safe.”
Telegram said: “Child abuse materials and imagery of any kind are explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service.
“Telegram has a dedicated team of professional moderators specifically for dealing with child abuse materials. Moderators’ efforts are further extended with custom AI and machine learning.”
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