FBI warns of AI-generated child sexual abuse material 'explosion'

The FBI has issued a public warning about what it describes as an explosion in AI-generated child sexual abuse material, stating that predators are using artificial intelligence tools to create synthetic CSAM from ordinary photographs of children, including images taken from social media profiles and school websites. The bureau reports that the volume of AI-generated CSAM has increased sharply in 2026, with offenders using both commercial and open-source image generation tools to produce illegal content, and that some of this material is being used in sextortion schemes to coerce victims.

Detection capabilities built to identify synthetic CSAM in transit address the threat at the point of contact rather than after distribution. Guardii's anti-CSAM module, which operates in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, is designed to detect and block child sexual abuse material including AI-generated and deepfake imagery before it reaches a target, flagging hostile contact and surfacing children at risk to parents, schools or law enforcement without requiring manual review of every conversation. The system reports the pattern and severity of a threat rather than the content itself, enabling rapid escalation where a child faces imminent harm.