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Senate adopts trio of bills criminalizing AI-generated child sexual imagery and deepfake explicit media
Summary
The Texas Senate on March 12 passed three bills to criminalize possession, promotion, production or distribution of obscene visual material that appears to depict children and to outlaw nonconsensual explicit deepfake media, sponsors said the measures reflect prosecutor input to address AI-era harms.
The Texas Senate on March 12 passed three separate bills aimed at closing gaps in state law around AI-generated and other non-photographic sexual imagery involving minors, voting to send each measure to the House after adopting floor amendments.
Senate Bill 20 (Flores), Senate Bill 442 (Hinojosa) and Senate Bill 1621 (Huffman) create or revise criminal offenses that prosecutors and sponsors said are necessary because modern computer-generated images and deepfakes can be used to groom, exploit or harass children even when no actual child was photographed.
Supporters said the bills were drafted with input from prosecutors and law enforcement to give them usable tools. “SB 20 creates a new criminal offense related to obscene visual material,” said Senator Sergio Flores, the bill’s author. Flores and other sponsors said the measures cover visual depictions regardless of whether the image is photographic, animated or AI-generated.
Key provisions and penalties vary by bill.…
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