A new crime against nudification apps took effect in June. Guidance for police took three and a half months to arrive, and even then admits no court has ever tested its central legal rule.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. Section 99 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 inserted new sections 66I to 66L into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, creating an offence of making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply a "thing", an app, a bot, a website or an AI model, for use as a generator of fake intimate images, triable either way and carrying up to three years in prison [[1]][[2]]. The offence came into force on 29 June 2026 [[2]][[3]]. The Home Office's own non-statutory guidance explaining the offence to the police who have to investigate it was not published until 15 October 2026, 108 days later [[1]][[4]]. The guidance that finally arrived states, in its own words, that "courts have yet to apply" the central test it tells officers to use [[4]]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
On 29 June 2026, it became a crime to make or supply an app, bot or AI model for generating fake intimate images of a real person without their consent. A conviction on indictment carries up to three years in prison and an unlimited fine, and a company as well as an individual can be prosecuted if the offence is committed with a director's consent or connivance [[2]]. The first document explaining to the police how to investigate and charge that offence did not arrive until 15 October 2026 [[1]][[4]].
The offence sits in new section 66I of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, inserted by section 99 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, an Act given Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 [[2]][[3]]. It targets the tool rather than the individual act of creation already covered by sections 66E and 66F of the same Act: a "generator of purported intimate images" is widely defined, catching an app, a website, a chatbot on a messaging service or a fine-tuned AI model [[2]][[4]]. A person charged has a defence if they can prove they took "all reasonable steps" to prevent the tool's misuse, and internet service providers performing standard hosting and caching functions are excepted provided they act once aware of a problem [[2]][[4]]. The offence has been live, with all of that machinery attached, since 29 June 2026, the same commencement date this site has already found attached to a separate 48-hour takedown duty in the same Act that Ofcom still has no enforcement Code for.
The claims, tested
| The guidance's own words | What we found | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "The Crime and Policing Act 2026... received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Section 99 of the 2026 Act created new offences relating to purported intimate image generators... The offence was commenced on 29 June 2026" [[4]] (para 1) | The guidance explaining that offence to police, published by the Home Office, carries a "Published: 15 October 2026" date on GOV.UK and an "October 2026" cover date on the PDF itself [[1]][[4]]; legislation.gov.uk's own commencement record for section 66I independently confirms the 29 June 2026 in-force date [[3]] | A criminal offence carrying up to three years in prison was in force for 108 days before the department published guidance on how police should apply it |
| "The section 66I offence focuses on whether a reasonable person... would consider that" a technology is made or supplied for generating fake intimate images. "Courts have yet to apply the test and determine its application, however, factors which may be relevant to this objective assessment could include" four illustrative, non-exhaustive bullet points [[4]] (para 20) | The guidance repeats the same admission in relation to the "all reasonable steps" defence: the court "will likely have regard to a range of factors", again unweighted and untested [[4]] (para 28). No worked examples resolve the factors against a real set of facts, and no case law is cited, because none exists | Four months into enforcement, police are working from a legal test that the guidance itself says no judge has ever ruled on |
The mistakes, counted
A live offence carrying prison time went 108 days without guidance for the police enforcing it (1). Section 66I's three-year maximum sentence, triable-either-way status and corporate liability provision have applied to every police force in England and Wales, and the British Transport Police, since 29 June 2026 [[2]][[4]]. The document meant to help officers apply that law, the Home Office's own "Non-Statutory Guidance for the Police", carries a publication date of 15 October 2026, a gap of 108 days [[1]][[4]]. Nothing in the guidance explains what, if anything, police were working from before it arrived, or why a non-statutory document describing a statutory offence took over three months longer to publish than the offence took to come into force.
The guidance builds its instructions to police on a legal test it openly says has never been tested in court (2). Paragraph 20 sets out the "reasonable person" test at the heart of section 66I, then states directly that "courts have yet to apply the test and determine its application" [[4]]. What follows is a list of four "factors which may be relevant", introduced as illustrative rather than exhaustive, with no indication of how they should be weighed against each other or against a defence case [[4]]. The same gap recurs for the "all reasonable steps" defence in paragraph 28, where the guidance again says only that a court "will likely have regard to a range of factors" [[4]]. Officers applying a brand new criminal test, with prison time attached, are being asked to do so on guidance that is honest about having nothing but guesswork to offer where case law would normally sit.
Credit where due
The guidance does not paper over the gap it describes; it states the absence of case law twice, in plain terms, rather than presenting an untested legal theory as settled practice. The drafting elsewhere is specific and careful rather than sweeping: the mere-conduit exception for internet service providers is conditional on the provider having no knowledge and acting promptly once aware, not a blanket carve-out [[4]], and section 99(3) of the Act expressly excludes a "purported intimate image" of an entirely fictional character from the offence, so an AI image generator that only ever depicts invented people is not caught [[2]][[4]]. The guidance also cross-references the related offences, the separate Online Safety Act duties enforced by Ofcom rather than the police, and the distinct child sexual abuse image generator offence under new section 46A, clearly enough that a reader is not left to work out how the pieces fit together alone [[4]].
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. The offence itself targets something real: tools built, marketed or supplied for generating fake intimate images of real people without consent, a harm the Home Office's own guidance ties to a cross-government strategy for women and girls [[4]]. What the department's own record shows is that the law came into force in June and the police guidance explaining it arrived in October, and that guidance, honestly, has to tell officers the law's central test has never been before a judge.
The star score counts two documented mistakes. First, section 66I of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, carrying up to three years in prison on indictment, came into force on 29 June 2026, and the Home Office's own non-statutory guidance for the police on how to apply it was not published until 15 October 2026, a gap of 108 days confirmed against both GOV.UK's publication date and legislation.gov.uk's independent commencement record. Second, that guidance states twice, in paragraphs 20 and 28, that no court has yet applied the "reasonable person" test the offence and its main defence both turn on, leaving officers a non-exhaustive, unweighted list of factors in place of case law. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the competence of any named individual; the timing of guidance publication and the state of case law are institutional and judicial facts, not any one official's decision. Checked directly against the Home Office guidance PDF, the GOV.UK publication page and legislation.gov.uk, all fetched 16 October 2026.
Sources
- Making or supplying purported intimate image generators, GOV.UK / Home Office, published 15 October 2026
- Crime and Policing Act 2026, section 99, legislation.gov.uk
- Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 66I, legislation.gov.uk, commencement information (in force 29 June 2026), accessed 16 October 2026
- Making or Supplying Purported Intimate Image Generators: Non-Statutory Guidance for the Police, Home Office, October 2026 (PDF)