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AI-generated child abuse material surges in Europe, data shows

EuroNews · 🇫🇷 public France · · 437 words · By Inês Trindade Pereira
Child Online Safety AI-Generated Abuse Material EU Digital Infrastructure and Crime
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What to know about Child Online Safety

Online child exploitation is increasing across Europe, alongside AI-generated abuse content.

Claims checked 10
Techniques found 1
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Right coverage
Left25%
Center75%
Right0%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Online child exploitation is increasing across Europe, alongside AI-generated abuse content.

Why it matters

Which countries are emerging as hotspots for abuse material?

Common ground

With today's children growing up in a highly digitalised environment, there are increasing concerns about their exposure to harmful online content.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/29/ai-generated-child-abuse-material-…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

verified Verified 3
check_circle Corroborated 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
info Single Source 1
verified Verified By Reference 1
help
Claim 1: “In addition, in 2025, Europe's missing children hotlines identified 92 cases where online grooming was linked to a child going missing.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the 92 cases of missing children linked to online grooming in 2025.
verified
Claim 2: “Globally, the worst three countries are Bulgaria with 28% of the total child sexual abuse webpages, the United States with 16%, and the Netherlands with 11%.”
VERIFIED
A web search result explicitly lists the top three countries globally: Bulgaria (28%), the United States (16%), and the Netherlands (11%).
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web search NEUTRAL — Globally, the worst three countries are Bulgaria with 28% of the total child sexual abuse webpages, the United States with 16%, and the Netherlands with 11%.
https://dailyguardian.eu/ai-generated-child-abuse-material-s…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — An 11% increase on 2023. We work with governments, industry and regulators globally to stop online exploitation and abuse.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iwf_in-2024-more-than-half-62…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Child sexual abuse material is shared and distributed online, creating a global problem with removal. But it requires a physical hosting location which means there is a way to find and remove it from …
https://ddi.ac.uk/new-report-names-the-country-hosting-most-…
help
Claim 3: “In Western Europe, one in five children reports experiencing online solicitation or grooming before turning 18.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to support or refute the claim regarding the percentage of children in Western Europe experiencing online solicitation.
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Claim 4: “This is followed by the Netherlands and Romania, which were found to host 33,788 child sexual abuse webpages and 21,188 webpages, respectively.”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web search results (Project Rescue and another project source) explicitly list the Netherlands with 33,788 and Romania with 21,188 child sexual abuse webpages.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The F-16 training coalition is an international coalition formed on 11 July 2023 during the Vilnius Summit with the task of training F-16 pilots, technicians, and support personnel for the Ukrainian A…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16_training_coalition
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Netherlands–Romania relations are the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Romania. The Ambassador to Romania is concurrently accredited to Moldova. Romania has an embassy in The Hague and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands–Romania_relations
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Romania national football team (Romanian: Echipa națională de fotbal a României) represents Romania in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Romanian Football Federatio…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_national_football_team
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 5: “More than 4.5 million reports of potentially illegal online content were received by EU co-funded hotlines in 2025, according to the latest data from the Better Internet for Kids Hotline Observatory.”
VERIFIED
A web search result explicitly states that in 2025, EU co-funded hotlines received over 4.5 million reports of potentially illegal online content.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Generation Z, often shortened to Gen Z and informally known as Zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-la…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Generation Alpha, often shortened to Gen Alpha, is the demographic cohort succeeding Generation Z and preceding the proposed Generation Beta. While researchers and popular media loosely identify the e…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Alpha
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ever since the passing of the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act in 2023, the passing of Australia's Online Safety Amendment (Social media ban) in 2024, and the publication of The Anxious Generation b…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_age_verification_laws_b…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “Bulgaria is the worst country in the EU for the number of criminal webpages hosted, moving up 19 percentage points from second place in 2024.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources identify Bulgaria as the leading host of these webpages globally/in the EU, with one source specifically mentioning a 19% increase.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 19 April 2026 to elect 240 members of the National Assembly. The vote was triggered by the resignation of the Zhelyazkov government on 11 December 2025…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Bulgarian_parliamentary_e…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulg…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Revival (Bulgarian: Възраждане, romanized: Vazrazhdane) is a far-right political party in Bulgaria. Founded in August 2014, its chairman is Kostadin Kostadinov. The party is characterised by various a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 7: “There were also significant increases in France and Germany in 2025.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While there are mentions of increasing exploitation in Europe, there is no specific data provided in the evidence regarding the 'significant increases' specifically for France and Germany in 2025.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Apr 23, 2026 · Child sexual abuse material hosting hotspots. Europe continues to be the largest host of criminal content we action, with 72% of all ...
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iwf_behindthescreens-iwfinsig…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — May 29, 2026 · Which countries are emerging as hotspots for abuse material? #EuropeInMotion explains the latest figures.
https://www.facebook.com/euronews/videos/which-countries-are…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, both online and offline. In 2023 alone, there were 1.3 million reports of child sexual abuse in the EU.
https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/internal-security…
verified
Claim 8: “Over half of these reports were related to child sexual abuse material or child sexual exploitation material.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While evidence confirms the total number of reports (4.5 million), none of the provided search results specify the percentage or number of reports related specifically to child sexual abuse material for the year 2025.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. A supranational union with a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an es…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The European Union (EU) is a supranational union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European_U…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On 28 February 2022, four days after it was invaded by Russia, Ukraine applied for membership of the European Union (EU). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested immediate admission under a …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_Ukraine_to_the_Eu…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 9: “63% of the global child sexual abuse URLs identified by the child protection tech charity Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) last year were traced to hosting services in EU member states.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm that the EU was found to host 63% of the world's criminal child sexual abuse webpages, citing IWF data.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The child abuse image content list (CAIC List) is a list of URLs and image hashes provided by the Internet Watch Foundation to its partners to enable the blocking of child pornography & criminally obs…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse_image_content_list
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is an Internet industry initiative to share proprietary information and technology for automated content moderation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_Forum_to_Count…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a registered charity based in Cambridge, England. It states that its remit is "to minimise the availability of online sexual abuse content, specifically child se…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 10: “In the first half of 2025, analysts from the IWF recorded a 400% increase in AI-generated child sexual abuse material, with such material identified on 210 webpages.”
VERIFIED
A web search result from Euronews explicitly states that in the first half of 2025, IWF analysts recorded a 400% increase in AI-generated CSAM identified on 210 webpages.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — In the first six months of 2025, the UK-based internet safety watchdog verified 1,286 AI-made videos with child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that broke the law, compared with two in the same period la…
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/10/ai-genera…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — In the first half of 2025, analysts from the IWF recorded a 400% increase in AI-generated child sexual abuse material, with such material identified on 210 webpages.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/29/ai-generated-c…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — AI videos of child sexual abuse rocket with 1,286 discovered compared to just two in the same period last year. Call for the Council of the EU to rethink its position on Child Sexual Abuse Directive t…
https://www.eureporter.co/crime/child-sexual-abuse/2025/07/1…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.