Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two pieces of legislation that allow prosecutors to go after people who possess or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse images.

Peter Gentala, senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said that creating AI images isn’t anything new.

“But the technology has never been more available,” Gentala said.

As a result, Gentala said crimes to exploit children have gone up.

“The number of crimes that have occurred using generative AI to avoid accountability for exploiting children has spiked,” Gentala said.

The two bills signed by Newsom make it a felony to possess or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse images, whether depicting a real person or not.

“California clarifying its law makes it clearer for a big part of American society,” Gentala said.

Chad Ruback, an appellate lawyer based in Dallas, said that, to the best of his knowledge, California is the first state to change its law.

Ruback said before heading to Newsom’s desk, the bills had support from both sides of the aisle.

“So this isn’t something that just the majority Democratic Party pushed through in the California Legislature. This is something that had bipartisan support,” Ruback said.

That is one reason why he believes we’ll start seeing similar bills.

“I think we’re going to see more and more bills and, ultimately, laws on the state and federal levels addressing AI,” Ruback said.