According to a new research published by Anglia Ruskin University’s International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI), there has been an increase in AI-generated images of abuse on dark web. The offenders are using AI to create images that depict child sexual abuse and then circulate it on dark web. Internet Watch Foundation also shared a report which covered how some people are using AI technology to create images that exploit children.
The researchers analyzed some chats on dark web forums for 12 months and found that there have been conversations about using new emerging technology to fulfill dark and offending fantasies of people. This is wrong on many levels but offenders are just exploiting AI to create abuse imagery. Creating child sexual abuse material by using AI is a growing problem, but we also need to understand how offenders are creating and sharing it. Once we understand how all of this is taking place, it will be easy to prevent these kinds of offenses.
A group of people are also giving tech-facilitation to offenders to create child abuse material using AI and are also giving guides and videos on how to use the technology to create whatever you desire. The members are also circulating non-AI generated images and videos to learn to create new material.
One of the researchers said that it is very important for police and the public to understand how they should respond to such crimes. Law enforcement agencies should know how to code, respond and understand the material they find on the internet. There is also some misconception that AI-generated images do not use images of real people to produce its content, but the truth is that it also sources many real life images of children and manipulates them to create imagery. It is a great threat of online child abuse and it should be stopped before it’s too late.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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