A new bill, strengthening laws against child sexual abuse material, has been signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The bill addresses the emergence of Artificial Intelligence technology capable of creating images indistinguishable from traditional photographs. This had posed a problem, said co-sponsor of the bill, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.
"We [at the District Attorney's Office] were receiving child sexual abuse material that we originally thought depicted persons, but learned that it was actually artificial intelligence driven likenesses of a person so we couldn't file criminal charges because under existing California law, there was this dramatic void," he explained.
The new law emphasizes that the use of AI to generate child sexual abuse material is harmful as it continues the victimization of real children whose likeness is used in creating these images.
AB 1831 and sister bill SB 1381 amends the Penal Code to expand the definition of child sexual abuse material to include AI-generated content. It also revises existing sections related to the possession, distribution, and production of such material to explicitly include AI-generated material.
Nasarenko says he hopes the new legislation will protect children from digital abuse.
He said, "This is a real game changer. The law needed to catch up with the Deepfake technology. And thanks to what happened earlier this week, it will."
