Amsterdam calls for a worldwide ban on nudify tools

Together with more than 100 organizations, Amsterdam calls on the cabinet and the European Union to explicitly ban nudify tools. Platforms, app stores, and hosting services must block this technology. The call aligns with Safer Internet Day, an international moment focused on the online safety of children.

Shocking figures

Research by Offlimits shows that:

• almost 40 percent of young men between 18 and 25 years old have seen illegal or violent sexual images.
• 15.6 percent have seen images of sexual abuse of minors, realistic or virtual, including AI-generated images.

A study by the TV program Pointer among more than 60 secondary schools shows that 24 percent of schools recognize bullying with AI-generated nude images. Ten percent indicate this happens more than five times a year.

Apps and tools easy to find

Although making and distributing deepfake nude images is punishable in the Netherlands, nudify websites and tools are easy to find online. Often, there is no form of age verification or consent.

Worldwide, therefore, more than 100 organizations, such as the National Rapporteur on Trafficking and Sexual Violence against Children, INHOPE, Interpol, Safe Online, WeProtect Global Alliance, and Child Helpline International, call for a ban on this technology.

Alderman Scholtes: ban what causes harm

Alderman Alexander Scholtes (ICT and Digital City): “Amsterdam invests in digital resilience, but children cannot cope with an online environment that facilitates this kind of abuse. It is unacceptable that nudify tools make sexual intimidation and abuse increasingly accessible. That is why Amsterdam also signs this manifesto: what is legal but demonstrably causes harm, we must dare to ban.”