Met reports more than twofold increase in image-based sexual abuse complaints over five years
Reports of image-based sexual abuse and explicit deepfakes to the Metropolitan Police have more than doubled in five years, new figures reveal, as the Home Office promises a legislative crackdown on AI-powered tools that strip clothes from photographs.
Freedom of information data obtained by online safety provider Verifymy shows the Metropolitan Police received 1,766 complaints about non-consensual intimate image abuse (NCII) in Greater London last year – a 17 per cent increase on the 1,523 recorded the previous year and more than double the 805 reported in 2020. The force said the 120 per cent rise over the period reflects a rapidly changing online environment in which offenders exploit artificial intelligence to create and share realistic sexually explicit images without consent.
AI Nudification Tools Fuelling a Surge in Abuse
Central to the escalation are so-called “nudification” tools – AI applications that digitally remove clothing from images to generate convincing deepfakes. The technology has dramatically lowered the technical knowledge required to produce harmful content at scale. Offenders are also using AI companion sites that offer explicit conversations with simulated child characters, often advertised on mainstream social media platforms, alongside the generation of illegal images.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned last week that in 2025 it had detected a 26,362 per cent increase in AI-generated child sexual abuse videos compared with the previous year, identifying 3,440 such videos. Of these, 65 per cent were classified as Category A – the most severe under UK law – indicating a trend towards more extreme material. The IWF said video models, nudification apps, subscription platforms and agentic AI systems were enabling offenders to produce and distribute illegal content at an unprecedented scale.
Ofcom has launched an investigation into the Grok AI chatbot on X (formerly Twitter) after it was used to create and share sexual deepfakes of real people, including children. The regulator is examining whether X has complied with its obligations under the Online Safety Act to assess risks and remove illegal content swiftly. Separately, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is investigating X and its AI subsidiary xAI for potential breaches of GDPR, focusing on whether personal data was processed lawfully and whether adequate safeguards were in place to prevent the generation of harmful images.
New Laws to Ban Deepfake Tools and Speed Up Takedowns
The government is rushing through measures to counter the growing threat. Under the Crime and Policing Bill, which is in the final stages of legislation, “nudification” tools used for AI deepfakes will be banned. Developers and suppliers of such tools could face up to three years in prison. The bill also requires social media platforms to remove any non-consensual intimate images reported to them within 48 hours, with companies that fail to comply risking hefty fines or having their services blocked in the UK.
Victims of NCII will have up to three years to report the crime, extended from the current six months. A government spokesperson said: “Sharing or creating intimate images without consent is a vile crime and we are taking immediate action to tackle this growing issue. We have made the creation of intimate images without consent a crime with up to six months in prison and we are banning AI tools which generate deepfake sexual images of people without consent.”
The Online Safety Act already classifies the sharing of intimate images without consent as a “priority offence”, meaning platforms must proactively remove and prevent such material or face fines of up to 10 per cent of global revenue. Meanwhile, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, effective from 6 February 2026, criminalises the creation – or the request for the creation – of a purported intimate image of another person without their consent. The legal definition of NCII has also been expanded to cover AI-generated or altered images.
Experts Warn Enforcement Gaps Remain Despite Tougher Laws
Despite the legislative push, experts caution that enforcement may lag behind. Emma Robert-Tissot, Head of Partnerships at Verifymy, said: “In an age of hyper-realistic image generation, everyone should have control over how their identity is used and represented online. Consent management that supports this is no longer a technical consideration, it is a fundamental right.” She added that content moderation alone cannot identify all forms of non-consensual intimate image abuse, particularly as synthetic content becomes more advanced, and called on platforms to take “a more holistic approach – combining prevention, consent and detection.”
Concerns persist about low conviction rates, victim-blaming attitudes among some police officers, and a lack of understanding of technology-facilitated abuse. Some campaigners argue that the legal definition of “intimate images” should be broadened further to include material that is “culturally intimate” for the victim, even if it does not explicitly depict nudity or sexual acts.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson acknowledged the scale of the challenge, saying: “Non-consensual intimate image abuse can have a devastating and lasting impact on victims. The online world is changing rapidly, and reporting of this type of offending has increased significantly over the past five years. We continue to strengthen our response to tech-enabled abuse by bolstering specialist teams and investing in new technology. This includes technology that allows officers to review large volumes of messaging and an NCII toolkit providing vital information on what this abuse looks like and its impact on victims. While using technologies and working alongside our safeguarding partners to provide support for victims, we continue our call to tech firms to design out these methods of offending.”
