As of April 2026, all but five U.S. states have adopted laws that criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material and other technologically modified CSAM by including AI-generated images and videos in their CSAM definitions. The five states without such laws are Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Vermont, along with Washington, D.C. The article notes that even some states that criminalize AI-generated CSAM have deeply flawed laws, and that deepfakes now allow perpetrators to generate hyper-realistic images, videos or text that are both embarrassing and traumatizing. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that more than 133,000 reports indicated a generative AI nexus but without enough information to know how the AI was being used in the exploitation of a child.
Statute-based criminalization creates the legal framework for prosecution but does not prevent the creation, transmission or weaponization of AI-generated CSAM in real time, and the gap between generation and law enforcement response leaves children vulnerable to sextortion, harassment and psychological harm during the investigative and charging phase. As a world-leading AI online-safety platform and Meta Business Partner, Guardii closes that operational gap by monitoring direct messages across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms in real time, detecting AI-generated and deepfake child sexual abuse material as it is transmitted, blocking the imagery before it reaches a child, and surfacing both the victim and the offender to the appropriate authority so that intervention occurs at the point of harm rather than after the fact.
