Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool
An Illinois man is charged with five counts of dissemination and five counts of possession of child sexual abuse material after investigators linked him to an online account that allegedly distributed AI-generated explicit images depicting minors, according to a WTVO report on the criminal complaint. Prosecutors allege the account held conversations in which altered images and videos depicting two minors were shared with other users, and the complaint alleges the files were created by using artificial intelligence to manipulate existing photographs of the children. Investigators interviewed family members and reviewed school records to identify the children; court records indicate several allegations involve a victim under 13. The case began with a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tip to the Illinois Attorney General's Office, and his home was searched on 21 October 2026. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited KingdomUnidentified image tool
The Metropolitan Police said on 24 September 2026 that a man from London had been sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court to two years and four months after pleading guilty to offences including making indecent images of children and creating a purported intimate image of adults. Detectives established that he had photographed women and children in ordinary circumstances, many from his bedroom window overlooking a children's playground, before using AI to turn the photos into sexually explicit images, including by removing their clothing. A limited number of those photographed have been identified and are receiving specialist support. The Commissioner said a victim and their family felt forced to move to temporary accommodation because the man was bailed to his home near them before sentencing.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
The Crown Prosecution Service said on 28 October 2024 that a man from Bolton had been sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to 18 years' imprisonment with an additional six years on extended licence after pleading guilty to 16 child sexual abuse offences. According to the CPS, he used a computer programme and AI technology to alter photographs of real children into sexual abuse images, which he made to order for people in encrypted chatrooms and sold or shared, and some of the requested images used images of real children. The CPS says he admitted making about 5,000 pounds over 18 months. He was arrested by Greater Manchester Police in June 2023. The BBC court report says the offences were uncovered when he spoke to an undercover officer. He also admitted encouraging the rape of children under 13 in chatrooms.
Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownSpainUnidentified image tool
Spain's Policía Nacional said in a press note on 15 December 2025 that it had arrested a man in the province of Álava who photographed minors in the street and at municipal swimming pools and then manipulated the photos with artificial intelligence tools so that the children appeared naked. The investigation began in August 2025 after cyber-patrol work and international cooperation flagged someone producing child sexual abuse material; police say the suspect used advanced anonymisation techniques. A search of his home found numerous such images created with AI tools. He was arrested on suspicion of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material. The account is the police's, relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital; the number of children is not stated and the case is untried.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesArtSpace.ai (reported)
According to court documents reported by FOX59, an Indianapolis photographer uploaded photos he had taken, and images found on social media, to the AI image platform ArtSpace.ai and typed prompts asking it to remove the clothing of the people shown while leaving the rest of each photo unchanged. Police traced a May cyber tip that flagged 1,631 suspected child sexual abuse files on the platform to his IP address. Investigators say the photos he uploaded showed at least 47 children, some as young as four or five, and that he told police he knew several of the victims. After a forensic review found more AI-generated files and further juvenile victims, he faces 48 counts of child exploitation and two of possession of child sex abuse material. The charges are untried; a jury trial is scheduled for November 2026.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited KingdomUnidentified image tool
A former supply teacher who worked at secondary schools in Greater Manchester was jailed for six years at Bolton Crown Court on 15 October 2026 after pleading guilty to 21 offences, including publishing obscene material and taking indecent photographs of children. The Crown Prosecution Service says he used his position to find pupils' details, located their social media profiles and used AI to create sexualised images from their own photos, which he shared on social media; the BBC reports some were posted on X. Parents reported two accounts to police in March 2025. The court heard that one girl whose photograph had been used was left embarrassed. His offending also included more than 100 covert upskirt photographs taken in schools. The AI tool is not named.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 16/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
The Parker County Sheriff's Office in Texas says a juvenile confessed to taking photographs of a younger child and using AI to alter them so that the child appeared nude, and that evidence from the teenager's devices and TikTok account showed photos of at least three other juvenile victims were transformed the same way and uploaded to TikTok. The case began with a July tip from TikTok to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The sheriff's office says all victims were identified and their families notified. The teenager faces felony charges, including possession of child pornography, and awaits juvenile court proceedings; the account is the sheriff's office's, relayed by CBS Texas and FOX 4 on 14 October 2026, and the charges are untried.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 15/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
County 17 reports, citing an affidavit filed on 7 October 2026 in Campbell County District Court, that investigators examining a Gillette man's cellphone found an AI-generated explicit image of a minor. According to the affidavit, the original was a back-to-school photo that the child's mother had sent to the man in August 2025, and it had been altered using an AI application to make the child appear nude. The phone also reportedly held an advertisement for an AI pornography application. The man, arrested on 20 June on separate charges of sexual abuse of a minor, faces four counts of sexual exploitation of children; he is presumed innocent. The report does not say who altered the photo, when, with which application, or whether the image was shared.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 13/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool
NewsChannel 5 (WTVF) reported on 29 July 2026 that Metro Nashville Public Schools fired a tenured high school teacher after students reported him taking pictures of them and making AI videos of them without their consent. According to the station, a 7 July termination letter from the superintendent describes student reports, all brought to the school's attention during the spring 2026 semester, that included AI videos of male students doing a 'gay or zesty dance' or a 'feminine dance', as well as inappropriate comments, photographs taken on his personal phone and texts asking students where they were after school hours. The letter says the principal reported him to police and to the Department of Children's Services, which is investigating. The teacher can appeal through the district's termination hearing process. The report does not say which AI tool was used, how many students were depicted or how the videos were shared.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool
The Lake County Sheriff's Office in Illinois says that on 25 March 2026 a man from unincorporated Antioch told deputies a stranger had handed him a phone containing sexual videos of a young child he identified as a relative, and that he later admitted the story was fabricated. According to the sheriff's office, investigators found that he had taken photographs of the child and the child's mother and used an online service to generate sexually explicit videos from those images, including videos depicting the child, and a forensic analysis of his phone found further AI-generated videos exploiting the child and her mother. He was charged on 1 April 2026 with five counts of producing child pornography and is detained awaiting trial; the child was taken into protective custody. The service is not named, and the charges are allegations.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026
Event date unknownMalaysiaUnidentified image and video tool
On 8 October 2026 the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement, reported by Malaysia Tribune, The Malaysia Press and The Star, that it had received a complaint about the misuse of artificial intelligence on social media to produce and spread sexual images and videos alleged to involve teachers and pupils of a school in Kedah. MCMC said it would investigate with the Ministry of Communications, the Home Ministry, the Ministry of Education and the Royal Malaysia Police, cited the offences and penalties that could apply, and asked the public not to produce, upload or reshare sexual content involving or alleged to involve children. The complaint is unverified: the people depicted, their number and ages, the tool and the person responsible are not described.
Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesDesire AI (reported)
Police in Shawnee, Oklahoma, say a local man used an artificial-intelligence app to create child sexual abuse images from photographs of children in his community, and Pottawatomie County prosecutors have charged him with five felony counts of possessing and creating child pornography. According to News On 6 (28 September 2026), the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children task force was tipped through a national database in August, Shawnee police executed a search warrant, and police say they found more than 200 child sexual abuse images and videos on two phones, about 100 of which appeared to have been created through an AI app. Court documents cited by the outlet say police identified some of the young victims through selfies they had posted on social media, and investigators believe one photo used was of a neighbour, taken from the man's front porch. KFOR reported on 6 October 2026 that court documents say he admitted using an app called "Desire AI", that a juvenile's online selfie was turned into sexually explicit AI images, and that a photo he took of a mother and her young daughter was altered to make both appear naked. The account rests on the police and OSBI statements and the charging documents as reported; the total number of children depicted is not stated.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 07/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
WIRED (Caroline Haskins, 24 August 2026) reports the account of an Arizona-based sixth-grade teacher, who spoke to WIRED by name (not repeated here). He says his students circulated an AI-generated photo showing him and another male teacher kissing in the comments of his public TikTok account. He reported the accounts to TikTok as belonging to children under 13, and says TikTok did not remove them. He says the school immediately investigated and identified a student, who admitted creating and sharing the image and received a three-day suspension; WIRED says the district handbook makes that the most severe punishment children of that age can receive for a first-time sexual harassment offense. He told WIRED that reflecting on the experience had sent him into a spiral, and said his concern was mainly the permissive culture around AI among his students. The district did not respond to WIRED. WIRED gives no date for the episode and does not name the school, district or AI tool.
Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and video tool
Nai Dunia reported on 1 October 2026 that police in Neemuch City, Madhya Pradesh, had registered a case against a man from Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, who is a relative of a local woman through her own family (the complainant husband's in-laws' side). According to the complaint filed by her husband, the man used AI to edit photos and videos of the woman into obscene, objectionable material, sent them to her phone and blackmailed her. When she resisted he threatened to kill her husband and two children, and he threatened to spread the material to shame her socially and within the family. Over about seven to eight months, the complaint says, he sent QR codes of 20 to 25 different people to her phone and extracted roughly ₹50 lakh in 50 to 60 payments, which she sent through a neighbour and other women. The man had lived in the family's home and worked at the husband's business for about six months two to two and a half years earlier, which the complainant says gave him knowledge of the family's income and property. Nai Dunia reported that police were investigating and trying to arrest the accused. The account is the complainant's as reported by one newspaper; the images were not inspected.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool
ABC News (2 October 2026) reports that WA District Court Judge Belinda Lonsdale sentenced a 41-year-old man to four and a half years in prison, with eligibility for parole after two and a half years, for creating child exploitation material with AI. He had pleaded guilty to 26 charges including indecent recording and producing, creating and possessing child exploitation material, and to five charges of possessing indecent or obscene articles, and was fined $2,500 for the offensive material charges. The judge said he was guilty of incorporating images of real victims and manipulating their images using AI tools, and that the claim that AI-generated material involved no actual abuse was not mitigating because images of real children were used; ABC reports he used AI to manipulate images of children from social media. He sent sexual material through encrypted messaging apps to two co-accused and to a covert police operative, and a police raid on his Wanneroo home found a large amount of child exploitation material. The children are not identified and their number is not reported.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026
Event date unknownCanadaUnidentified image and video tool
Alberta authorities charged a man with making child sexual abuse material, alleging that he used AI to sexualise photographs and videos of children known to him. Investigators were identifying the children. He was released under conditions. The allegations remained untried.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
A Missouri man is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child sexual abuse material after a cybertip from a company operating a generative AI chatbot. According to the police probable cause statement as reported by a local newspaper, he told officers he uploaded photographs of children to an AI generator to undress them. He pleaded not guilty; the tool and the number of children are not reported.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool
Parents of three Goffstown middle-school girls told Boston 25 that classmates used an AI app to create and share sexual images of their children. They described fear of peers, reluctance to attend school and concern about the district's response. Parents said the school first notified them in early October 2025. The reproduced district statement cited privacy limits and its commitment to student safety, without confirming the specific disciplinary allegations. The first image date is unknown.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool
Police in Tasmania received a report about alleged illegal online activity involving a group of students at a school in the south of the state, and on 19 March 2026 a local outlet reported that the incident may have involved AI-generated content. On 29 April 2026 the ABC reported, citing Tasmania Police, that girls at the school had their likenesses used to make AI-generated sexual images. Two parents told the ABC that police said 21 girls had been identified as victims, that the AI-altered photos were shared in a boys' group chat and that the images appeared to have been taken from social media. Five boys are alleged to have created the images and have left the school. Tasmania Police said no charges were laid and the five youths were dealt with under the Youth Justice Act. The parents said their daughters felt isolated and unsupported, and the school principal denied that families were advised to withhold information from their children. The creation date and the AI tool are not reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool
On 21 August 2025 the Montana Attorney General's Office charged a Carter County man with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children for possessing child sexual abuse material. Prosecutors state that in at least one count an AI tool was used to alter images of a Montana child that were taken from the child's parents' public social media account. The investigation began with cyber tips about uploads to a cloud backup. The charges are allegations. The child and the accused are not named here. The only reported harmed person is the depicted child and the sources report no other consequence, so the harm evidence is weak: it rests on the prosecutors' description of the charged conduct. The date of the conduct is not reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Involving minors
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026