With a new bill, California is now ramping up its efforts to crack down on child pornography, and this includes AI-generated materials, which are unfortunately widespread in today's online world.
Previously, AI-generated child porn creators had found a loophole in the current state law that fights against child porn, overlooking the created materials by computers that are only reminiscent of a minor.
However, it is now known that most generative AI photo creators scrape data off the internet, with the AI-generated images actually containing realistic likenesses.
California Bill Aims to Take Down AI-Generated Child Porn
(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Also known as AB 1831, the bill already passed through the Assembly's Public Safety Committee hearing, and next week, it will head to the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee for checking.
The bill looks to further protect children from the loophole found in California's existing anti-child porn law, with supporters of the bill claiming that AI uses actual faces of children.
Anyone could be the victim of the said deepfake AI child porn, with California dedicated to stemming the spread of these explicit images under its jurisdiction.
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California's Previous Anti-Child Porn Law Has a Loophole
The previous California law against anti-child porn and abuse had a loophole, particularly as it only bans the creation, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse materials provided that it is a real kid.
AI-generated images are not counted as computers create them, yet they still use data and likenesses of real-world children taken from the internet. With the new bill, generative AI porn will also be considered illegal.
Widespread AI-Generated Pornography
AI-generated pornography is widespread, and many people are resorting to creating these images or videos via the many generative AI tools available online.
It first started with celebrities getting AI deep faked by unknown bad actors using the tech, with one of the most infamous cases with Taylor Swift seeing her explicit fake images trending online.
Other cases were also visited by government officials, with 50 US state Attorney Generals calling for a Congressional probe for AI child exploitation present on the web.
There were several child abuse materials present online and widely circulating, calling the attention of the people in power to do something about it and stop its spread.
In Australia, there was already the first-ever conviction for a criminal who was caught creating and distributing AI-generated child abuse materials, a monumental move against this act.
Now, California is pushing for a new bill, soon to be a law, that will protect children further from AI-generated deepfake porn, closing the loophole and penalizing the violators.
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