Federal appeals judge rules privately possessed AI-generated CSAM protected under First Amendment in Wisconsin case

On 2 September 2026, Judge John Z. Lee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled that the First Amendment protects private possession of AI-generated child sexual abuse material that does not depict a real child and remains in the home. The ruling upheld dismissal of a possession charge against Wisconsin man Steven Anderegg, who had been federally indicted in May 2024 for using the Stable Diffusion AI image generator to create thousands of explicit images of minors. Charges for producing, distributing, and transferring AI-created abuse material to a 15-year-old via Instagram remain pending. Judge Lee wrote that evolving technology complicates existing legal lines and urged the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue of virtual abuse material in the age of AI.

When detection is confined to the moment of distribution or receipt and possession itself is shielded by constitutional precedent written before generative AI existed, the operational window for intervention closes after thousands of images are created and harm accumulates in private. Guardii's AI-driven anti-CSAM detection module operates upstream of possession, intercepting attempts to solicit, share or coerce sexual content in real time within direct-message exchanges on Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms, flagging escalation patterns and blocking hostile contact before material is transmitted. A Meta Business Partner backed by Startmate, Guardii does not require access to stored files or private devices; it surfaces threat trajectories as they form in conversation, enabling parents, schools and authorities to act at the point of contact rather than awaiting post-distribution forensic review and prosecution after the fact.