1. Background: Loophole in Existing Law
Prior to 2024, PA law already made it illegal to share intimate images without consent but it didn’t explicitly ban AI‑created child sexual abuse imagery. That meant people could use AI to generate deeply realistic sexual images of minors and potentially avoid prosecution, especially if no actual children were involved
2. Senate Bill 1213 / Act 125 of 2024
Passed unanimously by the PA Senate on June 10, 2024, with bipartisan sponsorship
Key provisions:
Explicitly criminalizes the creation or distribution of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Makes it a separate and serious offense to distribute AI sexual images of minors or adults without consent
Signed into law later in 2024 as Act 125, which “closes the loophole” and empowers law enforcement to prosecute AI-generated imagery equally as traditional child pornography
3. Enforcement Begins
On April 14, 2025, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced the state’s first AI-specific child pornography prosecution. A 22-year-old York County man was charged for possessing over two dozen AI-generated child sexual abuse files, along with criminal use of communication facility charges.
Enforcement is already underway, not just in theory: real prosecutions for AI child porn are now happening.
Pennsylvania is one of the first states to criminalize creation of AI-generated child porn, not just its distribution.
