The use of artificial intelligence in children’s abuse and exploitation has been increasing at an alarming rate, the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) said on Thursday.
During a public briefing, CWC Executive Director Angelo Tapales warned that AI-generated child sexual abuse and exploitation materials have been rising in the global community.
“The AI generation tools we call, whether it’s open source—those available on the internet or the ones you buy—and also the so-called image editing software are really used by bad people to create child sexual abuse and exploitation materials,” explained Tapales partly in Filipino.
“And what happens is these get traded or sold on the dark web,” he added.
An AI image generator uses artificial neural networks to create images from natural language input, producing authentic and realistic visuals. Through it, perpetrators could create photorealistic images of explicit and illegal materials featuring children.
In preparing for the possible use of AI-generated materials in the Philippines, Tapales laid out that the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act would be ready in those cases.
He reminded the public to always monitor their children for threats, either from outside or online.
“So, what we’re doing there, of course, based on our interactions with other agencies and the private sector, is we want to teach parents and kids how to use the internet safely. Those online safety behaviors that we call,” Tapales said.