Ventura District Attorney co-sponsors new bill to outlaw AI-generated child sexual abuse material
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. – Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced on Tuesday that he is a co-sponsor of new legislation targeting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create illicit content involving children.
Assembly Bill 1831, introduced by Assemblymember Marc Berman, expands existing laws concerning depictions of underage people engaged in or simulating sexual acts to include a "representation of a real or fictitious person through the use of artificial intelligent software or computer-generated means".
The bill was introduced on Jan. 12 of this year and has been assigned to the Assembly's Public Safety Committee state the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.
“The sexual exploitation of children must be illegal, full stop. It should not matter that the images were generated by AI, which is being used to create child sexual abuse material that is virtually indistinguishable from a real child,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman. “We must stop the exploitation of children. It is critical that our laws keep up with rapidly evolving AI technology to ensure predators are being prosecuted and children are being protected.”
Ventura County District Attorney Nasarenko is a co-sponsor of the bill alongside the California District Attorney's Association, Common Sense Media, SAG-AFTRA, and the University of San Diego School of Law Children's Advocacy Institute.
"This legislation is in response to the dangerous convergence of artificial intelligence and child exploitation,” explained Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko. “As technology evolves, so must our laws. This bill sends a clear message that our society will not tolerate the malicious use of artificial intelligence to produce harmful sexual content involving minors.”
The use of AI-generated images in this manner is not an abstract or potential issue.
According to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, their Bureau of Investigation discovered an AI-generated video uploaded to YouTube that showed a child having sex with an adult man during an investigation.
That tip could not be prosecuted because it was determined that the video in question did not depict actual people explain Ventura County District Attorney's Office.
In another example, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office investigated the possession and electronic transfer of child sexual abuse material among three people where one man admitted to using his computer to create and share the material and, despite the obscene nature and its made-to-order distribution, the man was not prosecuted detail Ventura County District Attorney's Office.
