Children in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses, as a safety watchdog warned AI is making such content easier to produce. In the first six months of this year it received 420 reports from children of images of themselves that they believed had been faked or manipulated to appear explicit. “This rise in children reaching out because fake or AI‑generated sexual images have been created of them is alarming but also sadly predictable,” she said. The rise of AI-enabled deepfakes has prompted a series of warnings about posting identifiable pictures of children online. They suggested making social media accounts private or sharing pictures of children through a “close friends” group only.