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Committee hears LB172: sponsors, law enforcement and advocacy groups back expanding CSAM law to cover deepfakes and AI‑generated images
Summary
Sen. Brian Hardin introduced LB172 to update Nebraska's child exploitation statutes to cover AI‑generated and digitally altered images. Attorney General Mike Hilgers, Nebraska State Patrol, child advocacy centers and prosecutors supported the bill; defense groups raised concerns about scope and unintended consequences for teenage sexting cases.
Lincoln — The Judiciary Committee took extensive testimony on LB172, a bill offered by Sen. Brian Hardin to expand Nebraska law addressing child sexual exploitation to include computer‑generated and digitally manipulated images and to criminalize receipt and generation of certain AI‑created child sexual abuse material.
Hardin told the committee the bill "ensures that all forms of child exploitation are fully criminalized under Nebraska law" and argued that technological advances have enabled offenders to produce images and videos that are effectively indistinguishable from real children.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers testified in strong support, noting the state is "currently engaged in 2 active litigations... against Meta and TikTok here in Nebraska" and arguing that law enforcement urgently needs tools to…
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