England: Child porn verdict also for deepfake images
An Englishman gets 18 years in prison for various sexual crimes involving minors. Also for AI-generated 3D images.
(Image: Patrick489, Public Domain (CC0))
This report describes depictions of violence against minors.
An Englishman made depictions of sexual and violent abuse of minors to order until he finally fell into the trap of an undercover investigator. The 27-year-old perpetrator has now been sentenced to 18 years in prison. Not only, but also because of the images falsified with generative artificial intelligence (deepfakes).
According to British media reports, the man has confessed to 16 criminal offenses and has been found guilty of a litany of sexual offences: Encouraging the rape of a child, inciting a young person to engage in sexual activity, producing and distributing indecent photographs and possession of prohibited images. The convicted man will not be able to apply for release on parole for at least twelve years, the criminal court in the town of Bolton in north-west England has ruled.
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Investigators found both real and AI-generated images of abuse on the man's devices, which were confiscated in June. Although the latter did not look photorealistic, they were still classified by the court as "indecent photographs", not "prohibited images". The latter are drawings and similar non-photorealistic depictions, which carry a lower penalty.
Classified as photographs
British prosecutors are celebrating the ruling as a particular success because the court has confirmed the aggravating classification as photographs. The man took everyday photos of children provided by customers and turned them into 3D deepfakes using artificial intelligence. He then passed these on, sometimes for free, sometimes for a fee. He did not earn much from this; his turnover is said to have amounted to 5,000 British pounds (the equivalent of around 6,000 euros) over one and a half years.
The Englishman was exposed because he offered his services to an undercover investigator in a chat room for 80 pounds. "I've done beatings, suffocations, beheadings, corpses, bestiality, and the list goes on," the perpetrator is said to have stated in the chat, with a laughing emoticon.
The artificial intelligence provider is trying to distance itself from the crimes. The terms of use prohibit the creation of images that are harmful to minors or violate child pornography bans.
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