DV Journal

Imagine being the victim of AI-generated pornography circulating on the internet. Or worse, if your child’s image was being used. A bill to prevent AI (artificial intelligence) from being used to make child pornography or pornography using non-consenting adults is now law in Pennsylvania.

At a press conference Monday, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele praised the law, with Deputy Attorney General Angela  Sperrazza and Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery), a sponsor.

“We hear a lot about artificial intelligence,” said Pennycuick. “It’s transforming industry, advancing healthcare, improving transportation and even reshaping the way we do business. But with innovation comes risk.”

One of the “darkest and most troubling uses of AI” is “the creation of AI-generated deepfakes.”

“These deepfakes are hyper-realistic,” she said. The photos or videos often depict individuals “in explicit scenes that never occurred.”

Photos from a social media post of a high school yearbook can be “turned into deeply harmful, sexually explicit materials,” said Pennycuick.

And “sexually deepfake images of minors” are increasingly used every day,” she said.

“What’s most alarming is that the children are the prime target,” she said.

Since Congress has not addressed “the dangers of AI,” Pennsylvania officials stepped in to breach the gap.

Pennycuick, chair of the Communications and Technology Committee, introduced the bill, now Act 125 of 2024, to combat the problem. It closes a loophole to prohibit AI-generated child pornography, and AI-generated child pornography using on-consenting adults, she said.

“Law enforcement now has the tools it needs to prosecute individuals who create or share these insidious materials,” said Pennycuick. “The use of AI to harm others, especially our children, will not be tolerated.”

Steele thanked all the members of the legislature who voted for the bill and the governor for signing it.

“It provides a new protection for children and adults alike,” said Steele.

“When the stuff gets released…it’s very, very difficult to recover,” said Steele.  “If it’s out there, it’s out there. The impact of something like this is causing great stress to the targets of those AI-generated materials and their families. We’ve seen that already in the short time that AI’s been around.”

There’s been cases where someone created AI-generated images of someone they know with the intent to harass or harm the other person,” said Steele. “Sometimes they get sexual gratification from this.”

“This past year, we’ve seen incidents where we’ve seen the creation of sexually exploitation materials of individuals who’d never consent to that type of material, let alone [it] being disseminated,” said Steele. “It’s been difficult to talk to victims about not having this tool, about not being able to prosecute on this specific activity because it didn’t fit in with [the statutes].”

“We had a specific case where an older individual had a whole collection of child sexual assault material, and inside these were secreted files of AI-generated sexual assault materials of a very young child he had access to.”

“He’s charged, and we’re proceeding with that prosecution,” said Steele. “But we were not able to charge for these [AI] images.”

But in future cases, they can.

“This is a crime,” he said. “And there are severe consequences for those that are going to engage in this activity.”

“You’re going to be in a boatload of trouble if you’re going down this path,” he said. “Our goal is to hold child predators accountable for their crimes. And this new law removes a substantial obstacle for us to achieve justice for those families, for adult victims, for child victims.”

Sperrazza, who leads the child predator unit, said, “This is a tool we need.”

“It keeps us at the forefront. As technology changes, the way children are exploited will change, so we have to change with it.”

Pennycuick said the bill was a bipartisan effort. Former Sen. Jimmy Dillon (D-Philadelphia) and Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh) also sponsored it.

Asked about the number of cases in the state or Montgomery County, officials didn’t know. Sperrazza said a 69-count indictment was just filed against two men in Lancaster County.

Steele said kids, parents, and schools need to understand “that this is a crime and they will be held accountable for it.” He noted the law includes felonies and first-degree misdemeanors.

“This isn’t messing around,” he said.

In crafting the law, Pennycuick said they worked with a lot of groups, including the District Attorney’s Association and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“We had a lot of buy-in from different groups that touch this area,” she said.

Sperrazza said, “It’s punishing the same way you’d punish regular child pornography.”

In August, Lancaster County police launched an investigation into a disturbing case involving 20 high school female students. The perpetrator took these teenage girls’ real pictures and used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate nude “deepfake” images and distributed them on the internet. Despite the clear harm caused, the district attorney pointed out a critical problem: a gray area exists in the law that prevents charges from being filed in cases like these.

This incident is far from unique. We are witnessing a troubling rise in AI-generated sexual images of both minors and non-consenting adults. This technology can be used to create photos and videos to depict individuals in explicit scenarios that never occurred with astonishing and nearly indistinguishable accuracy.

Unfortunately, these deepfake images are not explicitly covered by existing state laws, including our child sexual abuse statutes.

Currently, for example, it is not illegal for a friend, colleague, or even a stranger to take photos from someone’s public social media profile, use AI to create explicit content, and then distribute the “deepfakes” online. Shockingly, some websites have even published realistic AI-generated sexual images of children.

As AI technology advances, it offers significant benefits to our daily lives, from healthcare innovations to improving transportation and business operations. But with this progress comes serious risks and unintended consequences. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has already called for federal standards to address the potential misuse of AI. However, Congress has yet to fully address the dangers posed by AI-generated content.

Here in Pennsylvania, as chair of the Senate Communication and Technology Committee, I introduced Senate Bill 1213 to address the alarming rise of AI-generated deepfake sexual images of children and non-consenting adults. Although current state law prohibits the distribution of intimate images without consent, it does not clearly address the use of AI deepfake technology. This loophole leaves many Pennsylvanians vulnerable to a new form of digital abuse, as seen in the recent case in Lancaster County.

The bill also explicitly prohibits the use of AI to generate child sexual abuse material—previously referred to as “child pornography.” With the changes contained in SB 1213, law enforcement will now have the ability to prosecute individuals who generate and disseminate these types of child sexual abuse materials.

Last week, the Pennsylvania legislature (or Pennsylvania General Assembly) passed Senate Bill 1213. For the first time in Pennsylvania’s history, legislation will be presented to the governor to combat the prevalent and highly disturbing “deepfake” images of minors and child pornography generated by artificial intelligence.

This bipartisan effort has garnered widespread support, including from the Pennsylvania Attorney General and district attorneys throughout the commonwealth. We anticipate the governor will sign this critical legislation into law soon.

AI technology has incredible potential for good, but it can also be exploited. Pennsylvania needs strong laws to protect its citizens from those who use this technology to generate sexual images without consent, particularly child sexual abuse materials. With the passage of SB 1213, we are sending a clear message: the insidious use of AI to harm others will not be tolerated in our state.

And most importantly, innocent victims, like the high school girls in Lancaster County, will be able to seek justice.