A new report warns that the proliferation of child sexual abuse images on the internet could become much worse if something is not done to put controls on artificial intelligence tools that generate deepfake photos.
Deepfakes of an actual child should be considered defamatory use of a person’s image; but they aren’t evidence of actual abuse the way real CSAM is.
Remember, the original point of the term “child sexual abuse material” was to distinguish images/video made through the actual abuse of a child, from depictions not involving actual abuse – such as erotic Harry Potter fanfiction, anime characters, drawings from imagination, and the like.
Purely fictional depictions, not involving any actual child being abused, are not evidence of a crime. Even deepfake images depicting a real person, but without their actual involvement, are a different sort of problem from actual child abuse. (And should be considered defamatory, same as deepfakes of an adult.)
But if a picture does not depict a crime of abuse, and does not depict a real person, it is basically an illustration, same as if it was drawn with a pencil.
Remember, the original point of the term “child sexual abuse material” was to distinguish images/video made through the actual abuse of a child, from depictions not involving actual abuse – such as erotic Harry Potter fanfiction, anime characters, drawings from imagination, and the like.
although that distinction lasted about a week before the same bad actors who cancel people over incest fanfic started calling all the latter CSEM too
Deepfakes of an actual child should be considered defamatory use of a person’s image; but they aren’t evidence of actual abuse the way real CSAM is.
Remember, the original point of the term “child sexual abuse material” was to distinguish images/video made through the actual abuse of a child, from depictions not involving actual abuse – such as erotic Harry Potter fanfiction, anime characters, drawings from imagination, and the like.
Purely fictional depictions, not involving any actual child being abused, are not evidence of a crime. Even deepfake images depicting a real person, but without their actual involvement, are a different sort of problem from actual child abuse. (And should be considered defamatory, same as deepfakes of an adult.)
But if a picture does not depict a crime of abuse, and does not depict a real person, it is basically an illustration, same as if it was drawn with a pencil.
although that distinction lasted about a week before the same bad actors who cancel people over incest fanfic started calling all the latter CSEM too
As a sometime fanfic writer, I do notice when fascists attack sites like AO3 under a pretense of “protecting children”, yes.
And it’s usually fascists, or at least people who may not consider themselves as such but think and act like fascists anyways.