Proposed bill in the Idaho legislature aims to make AI-generated pornography illegal
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IDAHO FALLS – As the 2024 Idaho Legislative session gets underway, lawmakers across the state are pushing for a bill that would make sexually explicit AI-generated images of people illegal.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, is working with Sen. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls, and Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, in drafting legislation aimed at criminalizing sexually explicit deep fake depictions in adults and children.
Skaug, an attorney by profession who has dealt with many “stomach-turning” sex abuse cases over the years, tells EastIdahoNews.com “there’s a real problem” with pornography.
Though there are laws addressing pornography, it hasn’t been updated to include advancements in technology that make it easier to produce. The ability to create images using artificial intelligence increases the risk of people being targeted, he says.
“Only four states have passed laws against taking someone’s face and putting it on naked bodies and doing perverted things. There’s really no recourse, except civil recourse in a lawsuit,” Skaug explains. “I looked at those bills and didn’t like how they were written.”
Skaug’s number one priority with this bill is to protect children.
Jared Mendenhall, an Idaho Falls police detective on the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, says they are actively investigating sex cases today that involve children and the use of AI.
Though the technology to put someone’s face on another person’s body has been around for a while, he says it’s only within the last year that it’s become difficult to determine whether an image is real or fake.
Since there is nothing in current Idaho or federal law that outlaws the use of AI to create pornographic images, police can’t always investigate it and some cases are disregarded as a result. That’s a major concern to Mendenhall and he says it needs to change.
“It needs to be illegal to possess or transmit sexually explicit images of children, regardless of whether they’re real children or fake children,” he says. “There is no societal need for sexually explicit images of children.”
Skaug agrees.
After speaking with detectives on the ICAC Task Force and a New York Congressman who’s trying to pass similar legislation, he has a better idea about what needs to be addressed.
“The defense now (with AI-generated porn) is that it’s not a real child (in the photo),” Skaug explains. “We want to criminalize that because of how it affects people.”
Skaug started working on this bill before the session started. It’s not clear when it will advance in the House, but Skaug is appreciative of his fellow lawmakers who are working with him. He hopes to see it become law soon.
“The legitimate purpose of government is to restrain evil,” Skaug says. “I looked at my list and asked what’s going on that’s evil in society? These two things and fentanyl were at the top of my list. As a legislator, I’m ready to go after these things this year.”