AI images and children, Emergency contraception, Charlotte Edwardes

Hello, this is Nula McGovern and you're listening to the Woman's Hour podcast. Good morning. Good to have you with us today. A question for you. Do you post photos of your children online? Do you ever have concerns about how those images might be used? Maybe you've debated whether it's right to share those pictures. Well, the National Crime Agency

has issued new guidance about images of children online. They want parents to know that photos can be manipulated into AI-generated sexual abuse material. And they also want to start a conversation about whether we should be sharing imagery online as a default. We're going to hear what they're recommending. And I'd also like to hear your thoughts and your

experiences when it comes to sharing photos or videos of your children. Are they involved in the decisions? It is an ever-evolving debate as technology advances. Now to get and in touch you can text the program that number 84844 on social media or at BBC Woman's Hour or you can email us through our website for a WhatsApp message or

voice note the number is 03700 100444. Also today Charlotte Edwards has written a beautiful and heartbreaking book Trouble Was is the name of it it's about a family in Devon in the heatwave of 1976. Charlotte will be with me in studio a little later. Also we'll go to a beauty salon in Ukraine to hear how some women are using

beauty rituals as a way to keep calm and carry on during such a difficult time. Also, should emergency contraception be sold in corner shops, supermarkets and petrol stations, we'll discuss that. And we'll also talk about how families can make the most of the school holidays without spending a fortune. That is all coming up. But let me begin with a warning to

parents about the risk of posting images of their children online due to an increase of AI-generated abuse imagery. The Internet Watch Foundation found that 3,440 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2025 compared to just 13 in 2024. The National Crime Agency says it is increasingly seeing offenders exploiting AI technologies to target children in new ways.

So let's hear a little more about what's behind the rise and also what advice is there for parents who might post photos of their children online. We have a couple of people joining us, Emma Hardy, good morning, director of communications at the Internet Watch Foundation and Dr. Elaine Casket, a cyber psychologist and the author of Reset, Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier

Life. Emma, let me begin with you. How do you understand this increase of AI generated images and videos online. Good morning. So I work at the Internet Watch Foundation and we are the front line of tackling child

sexual abuse images and videos. Whilst we're based in the UK, we work globally doing this work and we've been doing it for 30 years and we've always found ourselves because of the privileges we have to be able to do this quite sensitive work.

We're the first to identify new trends and not in the good sense either. So when it comes to AI a couple of years ago, maybe three years ago, we produced our first AI report looking at how many AI generated child sexual abuse images and videos we could find online just to start having the conversation.

And oh my goodness, as we all know, the technology has come on leaps and bounds in in lots of good ways. But, and as we know very, very well from the Internet Watch Foundation,

very often it's the offenders and those who want to use new technologies for nefarious reasons that also capitalize on it. So we are seeing huge amounts of AI generated

child sexual abuse images and videos and we're seeing this progress very, very quickly. You were talking about the videos just then. Video technology has come along so, so fast.

any of us can produce a few seconds of a clip that looks really good quality. My husband did it with our dog, a little five, 20 second type clip. That can now be done in the comfort of people's homes using the technology that's downloadable on our phones. And so we're also unfortunately seeing how this technology is being abused to create images and videos

of children. I was wondering also reading about it Emma, I mean can AI videos be made from photographs? Yes, AI videos of child sexual abuse of anything can be made from photographs. There are apps out there now where you just give it two different pictures and it will

suddenly bring to life the people in the photos and it will show them kissing. I mean that could be quite a funny thing. it's an old picture of your nan and grandad from a long time ago, you can almost see it animated. But also the same can be true with children and where there aren't safeguards

in place on these tools. You can use a legitimate picture of a child and you can make it into something which would be classed as child sexual abuse. And you can also generate from scratch, child sexual abuse images and videos using AI. And I think the important thing for everybody to know is that this is all illegal just because AI has been used

in the mix somewhere doesn't make it okay. This type of content is criminal and we're seeing more and more of it. I mentioned some of the figures at the top, which is a huge leap in the amount that that has been generated.

But with this particular campaign, along with the NCA, the National Crime Agency, what are you asking parents or caregivers to do when it comes to children's images or what not to do?

Because I suppose the big question is like, is it safe to post pictures of my kid online? And I think it's incredibly brave and bold of the National Crime Agency

to be entering into this discussion actually, but I think we're at a point where it's needed. What we want parents to do is be informed. We want parents to understand what the risks are

and to really question whether they should be putting images or videos of their children online and who can see it, who can see it and then what could happen with it.

I think most parents probably won't realize that a picture of their child at school