Pulitzer Center Reporting Prompts Brazil Officials To Take Down Website Selling AI Child Sex Abuse Content

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Brazil’s Advocacy-General of the Union (AGU) took down a foreign website that, according to reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center, was selling AI-generated child sexual abuse content.

In an official statement on its website, the institution said the action followed an extrajudicial notice from the National Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Democracy (PNDD), “based on an investigative report by Núcleo Jornalismo in partnership with the AI Accountability Network of the Pulitzer Center."

According to the AGU, the company behind the site, located outside Brazil, removed the content after being notified. The Pulitzer Center investigation revealed that criminals were using open-source artificial intelligence to create disturbingly realistic images of child sexual abuse, which were shared on forums hosted on the Tor-based dark web.

“By manipulating these tools, pedophiles are able to create hundreds of images depicting sexual exploitation and abuse of real children. The images are shared on dark web forums,” the AGU said.

The investigative project, AI's Role in Child Exploitation, monitored for 10 months how generative AI technologies are exploited to produce content that violates children and adolescents. The reporting series prompted major platforms, including Meta and the Google Play Store, to remove abusive profiles and apps.