A new national study has found that artificial intelligence (AI) escalates the amount of online sexual exploitation against children. The research, a collaboration between the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Australia and the Australian Federal Police’s Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, found that at least one young person in every Year 12 classroom has experienced or known someone who has experienced AI-facilitated sexual abuse. Associate Professor Tim Cubitt from Adelaide University, an author of the study, tells SBS reporter Wing Kuang that AI is not only escalating sexual child abuse online, it’s also become a safehaven that many children who experienced sexual exploitation turn to for help.