UK agencies urge parents to make children’s photos private

UK law enforcement and child safety organizations have issued a stark warning to parents, urging them to stop publicly posting images of their children online due to the rapidly growing threat of AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) released landmark guidance this week recommending that parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share photos only within a "close friends" group.

The guidance outlines three key actions: checking privacy settings on social media accounts, reviewing who can see images of children, and having open discussions about giving permission for people and organizations to publish images online. Officials stressed they are not dictating behavior but aim to raise awareness of a danger many parents do not know exists.

The urgency stems from a dramatic increase in AI-generated abuse material. The IWF identified 8,029 AI-made images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse in 2025, a 14% increase from the previous year. The rise in videos is particularly stark, jumping from 13 in 2024 to 3,440 in 2025. Advances in publicly available AI tools now allow criminals...