The National Crime Agency (NCA) has initiated a significant campaign aimed at educating parents about the risks associated with oversharing videos and photographs of their children online. This campaign comes in response to alarming statistics presented by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which noted an unprecedented 26,000% annual rise in AI-generated videos depicting child sexual abuse, jumping from a mere 13 cases in 2024 to 3,440 in 2025. Additionally, the IWF observed a 14% year-on-year increase in AI-generated images and videos concerning children during the same period, culminating in a total of 8,029 such instances.
To address these pressing concerns, the NCA is launching a focused social media campaign across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This initiative is designed to help parents, guardians, and other caregivers better grasp the concept of image consent. It aims to equip them with actionable steps they can take to safeguard their children from potential threats emanating from the online sharing of images.
As part of the campaign, the NCA and IWF are providing comprehensive written guidance that offers parents and caregivers safe alternatives for sharing images of their children. The guidance emphasizes the importance of ensuring that these images do not end up in the hands of individuals with malicious motives. Furthermore, the campaign extends to advice on discussing artificial intelligence and deepfake technology with children and young people.
In reviewing consent for sharing photographic content, parents and caregivers are urged to ask themselves several critical questions:
– Are they still comfortable with the potential uses of their child’s images?
– Have their preferences regarding sharing changed?
– Do they wish to limit or retract their consent?
– Is it acceptable to request that others refrain from posting photos or videos of their child online?
### The Risks of Oversharing
The phenomenon of “sharenting,” where parents overshare content related to their children on social media, has been recognized as a considerable risk. This type of sharing can lead to children’s images being exploited for AI-generated child sexual abuse content or used by fraudsters to obtain personal data. However, the IWF has cautioned that these threats are not merely theoretical; threat actors are actively targeting content, effectively using the very images parents share.
The IWF reported a striking example of how criminal organizations have begun to proactively exploit shared imagery. It was revealed that a gang targeted a school in the UK, where they managed to steal imagery of the students from the school’s website. They then used artificial intelligence to generate over 100 sexually explicit images of the children and attempted to blackmail the institution with the content.
Kerry Smith, CEO of the IWF, articulated the foundation’s concerns by stating, “We don’t want to discourage parents from sharing their children’s images with trusted friends and family, but it is crucial that everyone remains aware of the potential risks involved.” She emphasized the reality of these threats, describing the potential harms as devastating and stating that the lasting damage could be something parents would do anything to prevent. The IWF aims to empower parents and spark a public discussion on the propriety of sharing such images online as a norm.
Tim Wright of the NCA asserted that preventative measures are of paramount importance. He encourages parents and guardians to take actionable steps immediately. These steps include reviewing the privacy settings on social media accounts, thoughtfully considering who can access images of their children, and engaging in open dialogues with family, friends, schools, and community organizations about image sharing and consent.
Most crucially, Wright advised, “If something does go wrong, remain calm, reassure your child that they are not to blame, and report any concerns to the police or the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to ensure a swift response.”
The severity of the imagery being generated is also alarming. A staggering two-thirds (65%) of the images qualified as Category A, the most severe classification, compared to 43% of non-AI-generated criminal videos in 2025. These developments underscore the urgent need for vigilance and proactive measures in protecting children in an increasingly complicated digital landscape.