A global watchdog has reported a 400% rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material in just six months – prompting warnings that New Zealand is struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology.
The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which monitors and removes child sexual abuse material from the internet, says new AI tools have made it easier than ever to create explicit and realistic imagery.
“It’s moving faster than we’ve ever seen before,” IWF spokesperson Chris Hughes told 1News.
Unlike the dark web, experts said the material was now spreading across mainstream social media, chat forums, and search platforms – meaning young people can be exposed to it accidentally.
Parent advocate Holly Brooker said the situation felt like “a crisis point” in New Zealand.
“There are no real barriers stopping young people from seeing this kind of content,” she said.
Brooker, a co-founder of the online safety group Make Sense, said the Government needed to take stronger action.
“We absolutely need [the] Government to lead from the top and have policies in place that hold things accountable.”
What’s being done in New Zealand
Internet providers here used block lists shared through the Department of Internal Affairs – including one from the IWF that identified known websites hosting real-world child sexual abuse material.
Spark recently became the first New Zealand telco provider to extend that filtering to AI-generated and cartoon-style imagery, using the IWF’s Non-Photographic Imagery list.
“What we’re doing on top of that is blocking whole websites that contain this kind of abhorrent and illegal content,” said Leela Ashford, Spark’s sustainability director.
“As technology gets more sophisticated, it’s critical that we do our part to make our network a better and safer place,” she said. “While no single measure can eliminate the problem entirely, this is another layer of protection that will make a real difference.”
Telco provider 2degrees said it worked closely with the DIA and Interpol to block harmful sites, while One New Zealand said it stopped more than seven million illegal items last year and was reviewing how to handle the growing threat of AI-generated content.
What does the government filter block?
In a statement, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said AI-generated child abuse material was already illegal under New Zealand law, and the government’s Digital Child Exploitation Filter System blocked both live and AI content including the same IWF list Spark would use.
However, the Department of Internal Affairs told 1News its filter did not currently operate that AI list, although it was “under consideration” for future upgrades.
That inconsistency has raised questions about whether the Government was keeping up with the changing threat.
‘Still playing catch-up’
Make Sense’s Brooker said New Zealand’s legal framework was outdated and left too much responsibility with parents and private companies.
“We rely on an old law that’s 30 years old. It identifies what’s illegal, but there’s no enforcement mechanism to actually prevent access or take it down.”
The IWF said the rise of generative AI meant harmful material was being created and shared faster than regulators could respond.
“The technology’s becoming easier to use, it’s more widespread,” Hughes said, “and that’s contributing to people’s interest in generating and creating more AI child sexual abuse material.”
Experts warned that unless New Zealand acted quickly, it risked remaining reactive – cleaning up after the fact rather than preventing harm in the first place.
