![\"Where](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/where-to-get-help-for-sexual-violence-LLMHEV56JRA7JFGDWRSXY2VGVE.png\")
<\/p>\nA global watchdog has reported a 400% rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material in just six months \u2013 prompting warnings that New Zealand is struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s moving faster than we\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d IWF spokesperson Chris Hughes told 1News.<\/p>\n
Unlike the dark web, experts said the material was now spreading across mainstream social media, chat forums, and search platforms \u2013 meaning young people can be exposed to it accidentally.<\/p>\n
Parent advocate Holly Brooker said the situation felt like \u201ca crisis point” in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no real barriers stopping young people from seeing this kind of content,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Brooker, a co-founder of the online safety group Make Sense, said the Government needed to take stronger action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe absolutely need [the] Government to lead from the top and have policies in place that hold things accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s being done in New Zealand<\/p>\n
Internet providers here used block lists shared through the Department of Internal Affairs \u2013 including one from the IWF that identified known websites hosting real-world child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n
Spark recently became the first New Zealand telco provider to extend that filtering to AI-generated and cartoon-style imagery, using the IWF\u2019s Non-Photographic Imagery list.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing on top of that is blocking whole websites that contain this kind of abhorrent and illegal content,\u201d said Leela Ashford, Spark\u2019s sustainability director.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs technology gets more sophisticated, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
What does the government filter block?<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Digital Child Exploitation Filter System blocked both live and AI content including the same IWF list Spark would use.<\/p>\n
However, the Department of Internal Affairs told 1News its filter did not currently operate that AI list, although it was \u201cunder consideration\u201d for future upgrades.<\/p>\n
That inconsistency has raised questions about whether the Government was keeping up with the changing threat.<\/p>\n
‘Still playing catch-up’<\/p>\n
Make Sense’s Brooker said New Zealand\u2019s legal framework was outdated and left too much responsibility with parents and private companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rely on an old law that\u2019s 30 years old. It identifies what\u2019s illegal, but there\u2019s no enforcement mechanism to actually prevent access or take it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IWF said the rise of generative AI meant harmful material was being created and shared faster than regulators could respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe technology\u2019s becoming easier to use, it\u2019s more widespread,\u201d Hughes said, \u201cand that\u2019s contributing to people\u2019s interest in generating and creating more AI child sexual abuse material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts warned that unless New Zealand acted quickly, it risked remaining reactive \u2013 cleaning up after the fact rather than preventing harm in the first place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where to get help for sexual violence. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A global watchdog has reported a 400% rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material in just six months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[363,67,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-83757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}